Framing justice in ‘unjust times’: critiquing Irish legal, political, and medical debates on the right to die

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dc.check.date2034-12-31
dc.check.infoControlled Access
dc.contributor.advisorSkillington, Tracey
dc.contributor.advisorO'Neill, Maggie
dc.contributor.authorKeogh, James Patricken
dc.date.accessioned2024-10-03T07:51:22Z
dc.date.available2024-10-03T07:51:22Z
dc.date.issued2023
dc.date.submitted2023
dc.descriptionControlled Access
dc.description.abstractAgainst the backdrop of notable legal challenges here in Ireland, this research examines the enduring discord between the widespread societal endorsement of assisted dying and the prevailing legislative rigidity that unequivocally rejects it. To support this investigation, a qualitative methodology was applied, involving frame analysis of legal case documents and semi-structured interviews, supplemented with elements of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This approach helped identify the most dominant interpretive positions that constitute major sticking points of the right to die debate, and explore how these positions are shaped by ideologies, biases, and power dynamics that structure the exchange of ideas, arguments, and counter-positions. Drawing from critical definitions of justice (Forst, 2007; Honneth, 1995; Fricker, 2007) and Foucauldian considerations of power concerning both the physical and the body politic (Foucault, 1978), this study posits that end-of-life controversies are more usefully conceptualised as ‘pained’ experiences (Scarry, 1985), defined from the viewpoint of the suffering body. Providing detailed accounts of how justice regarding the right to die has been constructed in formal decision-making arenas and publicly challenged by an emerging social movement that considers it ‘unjust,’ this body of work observes the residual effects of a deeply conservative Catholic state on experiences of dying. Despite its loosening stranglehold on contemporary Irish society, a nexus of legal, political, and medical power structures continues to thwart efforts to legislate for assisted dying. These forces successfully frame the conditions for its possibility as morally reprehensible and as an extension of suicide, leaving legislators hesitant to take decisive action. Frustrated by the lack of progress on the issue and driven by the desperate pleas of loved ones, this study crucially documents the justifications employed by individuals for taking matters into their own hands and laying a claim upon death themselves. This subversive response, though shrouded in secrecy, speaks to the pressing nature of unfulfilled human needs and the desperate yearning for the fundamental requisites of compassion and agency. It represents a poignant manifestation of the stark realities faced by those entangled in end-of-life crises – realities that demand more urgent and heartfelt engagement from policymakers than currently offered.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationKeogh, J. P. 2023. Framing justice in ‘unjust times’: critiquing Irish legal, political, and medical debates on the right to die. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage241
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/16491
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2023, James Patrick Keogh.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectRight to die
dc.subjectAssisted dying
dc.subjectLegal framing
dc.subjectEnd-of-life care
dc.subjectInjustice
dc.subjectSuffering
dc.titleFraming justice in ‘unjust times’: critiquing Irish legal, political, and medical debates on the right to die
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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