This week, the following articles are recommended from my friends! There’s nothing better than finding an article in my inbox with the tagline, “I think you’ll like this..”
This weekend, take some time to give these articles a read - I think you’ll like these..
The Ethics of a Public Psychotherapy
By: Dr. Aaron Black
Some of my friends and I will casually chat about what our therapists said that week as if they’re extended members of the friend group. Jonah Hill went a few steps further and made a whole Netflix documentary about his therapist, Phil Stutz.
Dr. Aaron Black, a psychotherapist himself, discusses the ethics of this film in the linked article. Here is a notable excerpt:
It's just not really what most therapy looks like. As psychotherapist and author James Davies points out in this Vice piece, Stutz eschews a lot of what would be considered good practice, instead demanding "total faith for healing and life-transformation to occur." There is certainly more guru here than therapist.
Read the article on Stillpoint here.
No Other Options
By: Alexander Raikin
If you’ve been following the newsletter for the past few months, you’ll know that my brain is famously pretzeled over MAID in Canada. The linked article from The New Atlantis is a very thorough look at some of the practical and clinical challenges of MAID and its expansion in Canada.
I’m not sure I agree with everything the author writes; it seems the author is much less ambivalent than I am on the matter, but this is very much worthy of your time. The author did an impressive deep dive of those hospital seminars you think no one watches; if you’re a Toronto bioethicist, you’ll see some familiar names in the article.
Note: The article is from mid-December.
Here is a notable excerpt:
A system that protects against abuse is one that methodically identifies these situations, and, when they do happen, treats them as big red flags. It warns others about them and reforms the system to help prevent them. If the MAID system were working as promised, the presenters should be warning attendees that they must be vigilantly on the lookout for just the kinds of cases described in the seminar, scrupulously ensuring that they are not approved for euthanasia.
Instead, what we hear from Canada’s euthanasia professionals is vacillation, equivocation, delay, and excuses.
During the Q&A, no one in the seminar doubts that the stories are true. Nobody suggests strengthening the safeguards, alerting the public, or halting the system while the problem is worked out. Less than a decade into Canada’s experiment in medicalized death, with over 31,500 people dead, the speakers feebly propose to start collecting data.
Read the article on The New Atlantis here.
The Switzerland Schedule
Though I work in clinical ethics, I have never been present for a MAID death. Reading this piece shared by Roxane Gay’s The Audacity substack felt pretty close to what I imagine witnessing a MAID death is like. It is beautifully written, heart-breaking, and profound all at once. An excerpt won’t do it justice, go and read the whole thing please.
That’s it for this week! Friends, keep these articles coming. I love to read them and share them. I would also love to know your thoughts on this newsletter - what’s working, what’s not working? Would you be interested in seeing it grow? Maybe more outputs like our own podcasts and publications? This feedback from you keeps me going, so please don’t hesitate to share it with me!
Wishing you a beautiful and warm weekend wherever you are.
-Nipa
Why are you receiving this newsletter?
Since Café Bioethics began in 2018, you must have subscribed to our email list to keep up with our work! We are so grateful!
Here is a new initiative we’ve come up with - the Café Bioethics Substack. I’ve personally loved subscribing to Substack newsletters about ethics, economics, and food - I thought, Café Bioethics would fit right in to the scene.
Every week, I’m going to send you stuff I think you should know about. There is so much bioethics-related content out there; I will find it and send it your way. And if you find some of this bioethics-y content - send it my way! It might make it’s way on the newsletter!
To learn more about Café Bioethics, be sure to visit our updated website! Check out our podcasts, publications, past events, and call for papers! Of course, don’t forget to say hello. :)