History Chair Publishes
As Parliament begins discussing bill C-407, which calls for the legalization of assisted suicide, a provocative new book by an internationally-acclaimed Canadian historian of medicine is bound to inform the coming debate.
In Life, Death, God, and Medicine: A Concise History of Euthanasia (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2005), UPEI history professor Ian Dowbiggin exposes the many disturbing themes that link present and past, and traces the heated international controversy surrounding assisted suicide and other forms of euthanasia. Dowbiggin reminds us that the stakes in the struggle over "the right to die" are enormously high, with the lives of countless vulnerable people hanging in the balance.
Dr. Dowbiggin is Chair of the UPEI History Department. He is the author of four books on the history of medicine, including A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2003). A frequent commentator on current events and medical issues, he has been featured on C-SPAN's Book TV and National Public Radio.
