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Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness

INTRODUCTION: Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) is a legal means of hastening death through refusal of food and fluids – a topic rarely addressed in Christian Protestantism. Among this group, U.S. Mainline Protestants comprise nearly 15% of the population and are more likely to include...

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Autor principal: Incorvaia, Aubrey DeVeny
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9160891/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35662998
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/26323524221101074
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author Incorvaia, Aubrey DeVeny
author_facet Incorvaia, Aubrey DeVeny
author_sort Incorvaia, Aubrey DeVeny
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description INTRODUCTION: Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) is a legal means of hastening death through refusal of food and fluids – a topic rarely addressed in Christian Protestantism. Among this group, U.S. Mainline Protestants comprise nearly 15% of the population and are more likely to include social moderates and liberals who emphasize quality of life (over mere life) and may therefore be open to the practice. OBJECTIVES: Leveraging the well-established and validated Theory of Planned Behavior – that posits a person’s intentions to carry out an action are motivated by one’s attitude, perception of subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control – this research elucidates clergy and congregants’ normative beliefs and anticipated tactical support for VSED, including their reactions to Christian-based justifications for this end-of-life option. Such reasoning includes that VSED is a “fast into eternal life” and is based on the example of Jesus Christ, who, in the face of ongoing suffering, determined the end of his own life when he stated, “It is finished,” and gave up his spirit – an insight originally argued by John Donne in Biathanatos (1647/1982). METHODS: This case study of one southern Anabaptist congregation employs a focus group and one-on-one interviews, capturing reactions to a vignette in which a hypothetical fellow parishioner intends to VSED in the face of ongoing suffering from a terminal illness. RESULTS: In response to the presented vignette, study participants reported their affirmation of VSED. Responses to faith-based justifications for the practice varied widely. CONCLUSION: Individuals aiming to VSED in the face of terminal illness may have their intention affirmed by a church community, but will likely require additional caregiving support to achieve a hastened death. A nascent framework for future comparative studies of faith communities’ assessments of VSED is also proposed.
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spelling pubmed-91608912022-06-03 Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness Incorvaia, Aubrey DeVeny Palliat Care Soc Pract Original Research INTRODUCTION: Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) is a legal means of hastening death through refusal of food and fluids – a topic rarely addressed in Christian Protestantism. Among this group, U.S. Mainline Protestants comprise nearly 15% of the population and are more likely to include social moderates and liberals who emphasize quality of life (over mere life) and may therefore be open to the practice. OBJECTIVES: Leveraging the well-established and validated Theory of Planned Behavior – that posits a person’s intentions to carry out an action are motivated by one’s attitude, perception of subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control – this research elucidates clergy and congregants’ normative beliefs and anticipated tactical support for VSED, including their reactions to Christian-based justifications for this end-of-life option. Such reasoning includes that VSED is a “fast into eternal life” and is based on the example of Jesus Christ, who, in the face of ongoing suffering, determined the end of his own life when he stated, “It is finished,” and gave up his spirit – an insight originally argued by John Donne in Biathanatos (1647/1982). METHODS: This case study of one southern Anabaptist congregation employs a focus group and one-on-one interviews, capturing reactions to a vignette in which a hypothetical fellow parishioner intends to VSED in the face of ongoing suffering from a terminal illness. RESULTS: In response to the presented vignette, study participants reported their affirmation of VSED. Responses to faith-based justifications for the practice varied widely. CONCLUSION: Individuals aiming to VSED in the face of terminal illness may have their intention affirmed by a church community, but will likely require additional caregiving support to achieve a hastened death. A nascent framework for future comparative studies of faith communities’ assessments of VSED is also proposed. SAGE Publications 2022-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC9160891/ /pubmed/35662998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/26323524221101074 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research
Incorvaia, Aubrey DeVeny
Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
title Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
title_full Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
title_fullStr Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
title_full_unstemmed Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
title_short Biathanatos revisited: Anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
title_sort biathanatos revisited: anabaptist perspectives on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking in the face of terminal illness
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9160891/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35662998
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/26323524221101074
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