The ethical dilemmas surrounding dying and death today can be understood more adequately when placed in an historical perspective. The methodology of intellectual history is employed to examine the sequence of cultural stages from prehistory to the contemporary scene, using the concept of the death system (Kastenbaum) as an organizing formulation. It is suggested in conclusion that a modern version of the meliorist ethos can lend support to the on-going modes of biomedical research and the application of the activist therapeutic principle in medical practice. Humanity has labored and suffered too much to abandon hope at this time and either submerge the personality of the individual or turn to a nihilistic “death worship” (Borkenau).
This interdisciplinary study defines voluntary euthanasia re transcendent values, and uses a “self-death” concept linking ideas about suicide and euthanasia. Attitudes and beliefs are discussed in detail along an historical perspective, Gothic to present day, and a bibliography is provided for interdisciplinary studies. Since 1945, existentialism has defied death taboos to restate the tragic plight of the individual. Social and clinical changes that isolate and demoralize patients are challenging the biomedical revolution. Additionally, neoorthodox, Catholic humanist, New Left and counterculture ideologies are providing bases for current discussion of euthanasia reform.
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