Ian Dowbiggin
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Ian Robert Dowbiggin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 (age 71–72) |
| Alma mater | University of Rochester, University of Toronto, MacMaster University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History |
| Institutions | University of Prince Edward Island |
Ian Robert Dowbiggin (born 1952) is an academic historian, a historian of medicine, a commentator on Catholicism, and an opponent of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. He is a professor in the History department at the University of Prince Edward Island. His research and publications have been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Associated Medical Services. He acts as consultant and coordinator for The Cathedral Institute of Christian Spirituality.[1]
In 2011, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[2]
Euthanasia
Dowbiggin has written on the history of the euthanasia movement, including A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America (2003) and A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine (2005). His works link Darwinism to the euthanasia movement as an example of the "intellectual shift" of the times that led to euthanasia, along with social progressivism and Unitarianism, with examples including the founder of the Euthanasia Society of America, Charles Francis Potter.[3][4] The Canadian Historical Association awarded Dowbiggin the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize for A Merciful End, stating that the book "gives a clear and evenly-balanced study of the history of euthanasia in the United States since the latter part of the nineteenth century" and concluded that it overall is a "masterful explanation of the way in which changing social, economic and disease-related factors have affected public interest in euthanasia."[5]
Dowbiggin's focus on eugenics being similar to euthanasia, however, was criticized by Sandra Woien in the American Journal of Bioethics for overemphasising the relationship between the two, and of muddying "important conceptual and practical distinctions" of the different aspects of euthanasia.[6]
Dowbiggin has spoken against euthanasia legislation and has argued that the Netherlands exists as a "cautionary lesson" for Canada in particular, as an example that those places that "take a permissive attitude to assisted suicide keep pushing the boundaries."[7]
Sterilization
Dowbiggin published the book The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century in 2008. Drawing on scholarly sources, the book is primarily an account of sterilization as used for the purposes of eugenics and population control, examples including the use of sterilization by European fascists and the Indian mass sterilization program carried out during the 1975–1977 Emergency in India, which contributed to the downfall of Indira Gandhi's government.[8]
Ulf Högberg, guest researcher of Public Health and Clinical Medicine at Umeå University, argued in the European Journal of Public Health that, "The book is most impressive, finely tuning the history between choice and compulsion of sterilization policy; sometimes it has been a fine line in between, sometimes an abyss of abuse of human rights."[9]
A review in the The New England Journal of Medicine, by Carolyn Westhoff, an official of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, summed up by agreeing with the book's conclusion that "advocacy of sterilization as a solution to population growth leads to serious problems when that agenda overrides individual values and individual autonomy", but differs from it in stating that "Voluntary sterilization, however, deserves its great popularity and will remain valuable as one part of a broader menu of options for family planning." [8]
Partial bibliography
- A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine (2005)
- A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America (2003)
- Suspicious Minds: The Triumph of Paranoia in Everyday Life (1999)
- Keeping America Sane: Psychiatry and Eugenics in the United States and Canada, 1880-1940 (1997)
- Inheriting Madness: Professionalization and Psychiatric Knowledge in 19th Century France (1991)
References
- ^ "The Cathedral Institute". stpeter.org. 2011 [last update]. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
The staff who run the Institute are ... Professor Ian Dowbiggin and Professor Philip Davis, our Consultants and Coordinators
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ "Class of 2011: List of New Fellows" (PDF). Royal Society of Canada.
- ^ Weikart, Richard (2004). "Killing Them Kindly: Lessons from the euthanasia movement". California State University. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
- ^ Larson, Edward (2004). "Review: Euthanasia in America: Past, Present, and Future: A Review of a "Merciful End" and "Forced Exit"". Michigan Law Review. 102 (6): 1245–1262. JSTOR 4141944.
- ^ Canadian Historical Association Website: http://cha-shc.ca/en/Prizes_24/items/10.html
- ^ Woien, Sandra (2007). "Review of Ian Dowbiggin, A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine and Neal Nicol and Harry Wylie, Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia". American Journal of Bioethics. 7 (11): 50–52.
- ^ Casey, Donna. "Debating euthanasia". CNews. Sun Media. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
- ^ a b Carolyn L. Westhoff, M.D. (2008). "The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century". N Engl J Med. 359: 1854–1855.
- ^ http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/1/121.full.
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