Women and euthanasia: An interdisciplinary approach

This thesis uses a feminist approach to address the problem of women's experiences of suffering dying and death within patriarchal society. It argues that Canadian women have the right to demand legalized Euthansia and to choose physician-assisted suicide as a viable terminal choice. Critical analyses of male-supremacy ideology in politics, religion, philosophy, medicine, and law show its control over women's lives and deaths, and a research study of Canadian women's attitudes and opinions toward Euthanasia and death-and-dying refutes claims of high death-anxiety in women. Reduced incomes, diminished health-care resources, fragmented families, and chronic illnesses increase the suffering of women who die alone, and provide one reason why women must demand social policies that include the right to choose assisted death. Feminist research into women's profound experiences of suffering, dying, and death is urgently needed.