WCB 2020 ANTONIO SANDU: BIOETHICAL ACCEPTABILITY OF EUTHANASIA IN GREEK ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS CONTEXT (ACCEPTABILITATEA BIOETICA A EUTANASIEI IN CONTEXT ORTODOX)
Descriere:
BIOETHICAL ACCEPTABILITY OF EUTHANASIA IN THE GREEK ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS CONTEXT Authors: Prof. PhD. Hab. Antonio SANDU (Professor PhD Head of Department of Law and Public Administration “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania & Director of LUMEN Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences, Iasi, Romania, “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania & LUMEN Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences, Iasi, Romania) PhD. Ana FRUNZĂ (Researcher in Philosophy, LUMEN Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences; “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava, Romania) PhD. student Alexandra HUIDU (Researcher, Doctoral School of Sociology, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania; LUMEN Research Center in Social and Humanistic Sciences, Iasi, Romania) Presenting: Prof. PhD. Hab. Antonio SANDU Abstract Background: Religious affiliation influences decisions about the ethical acceptance of euthanasia. The Greek Orthodox Christian Church expressly opposes the approval of euthanasia; therefore, believers strongly oppose this practice. Objectives: The paper analyzes the instances of social construction of the acceptability of euthanasia in the Greek Orthodox Christian religious context. Methods: A series of three focus groups and ten individual interviews were undertaken with people belonging to the Greek Orthodox Christian religion in northeastern Romania. The interviews addressed how people make their decisions about the ethical acceptability of euthanasia and how religious beliefs inspired by Orthodox Christianity are reflected in the decision-making process regarding the acceptability or unacceptability of an extreme medical practice, including interrupting the course of life at the patient’s request. The focus group later watched an artistic film with a strong emotional impact, which presented the opinion of a person with an unbearable medical condition, who decided to resort to euthanasia. The reaction of the participants was observed and the elements of acceptability or unacceptability of euthanasia, as well as the ethical-religious background of the decision, were questioned again. Data analysis was performed using the Grounded Theory method. Findings: The emotional factor and discursive contingency of the reference group significantly contributes to nuancing religious beliefs. Conclusion: The bioethical discourse on euthanasia should be overtoned to take into account not only religious beliefs, but also the emotional context in which the acceptability of an extreme medical practice is socially constructed.
ANTONIO SANDU: MEDICALIZATION OF SOCIAL LIFE (MEDICALIZAREA VIETII SOCIALE)
Descriere:
“Medicalization of Social Life in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic” – Chapter # 3 of the volume “BIOETHICS IN CRISIS OR THE CRISIS OF BIOETHICS? An Anthropology of Pandemic in the Medicalized Society” published at Editura Științifică LUMEN, 2020. “The medicalization of society represents the effect of the “risk society” in practice, a society in which the individuals are readily aware of the various dangers that they feel threatened by. Sometimes we get to the idea of “medicalizing the human condition”, which is nothing than a treatable disorder. Under these conditions, a pandemic causes the entire society to become restricted, the social activity to be shrunk, and to talk of social distancing.”
ANTONIO SANDU: VIRTUALIZATION OF SOCIAL SPACE. FROM PANDEMIC TO INFODEMIC (VIRTUALIZAREA SPATIULUI SOCIAL. DE LA PANDEMIE LA INFODEMIE)
Descriere:
There are a number of contemporary cosmogonic theories, which we would introduce into what we have called quantum metaphysics, which holds that the current world we live in is actually a simulation. Technological globalization can be analyzed from the perspective of the mutations that occurred in the interpretation of the social space from the traditional one, limited to the geographical coordinates of the interaction, to a delocalized and universalizing one. The pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has accentuated this trend. The digital revolution produces a phenomenon of virtualization of social space – in the sense of transferring socializing interactions to virtual environments – with special and somewhat unpredictable consequences for the evolution of being and even the human species. Next, we consider the identification of some constitutive dimensions of the phenomenon of the virtualization of the social space, of its evolutionary tendencies and of the eventual sociopathologies. The cultural space, being essentially cross-cultural, generates a continuous (re) negotiation of the interpretation of the social reality and of the construction of new interpretative models. Understanding the interpretive drift of the concept of social reality in the context of communication virtualization allows us to say that the virtualization of social space has led humanity to explore a sui generis additional dimensions of space, noetic in nature, experienced in the form of instantaneous communication and virtual ubiquity. In this lecture we will address the topic of fake news, which represents a real threat to society and could be considered a public health issue. The fake news campaign that accompanied public communications during the pandemic was named, by the Worls Health Organization, infodemic, considering that its purpose was to generate panic and create social and economic problems, which would seriously overcome the initial public health problem – namely that of the pandemic -, to destabilize both states and global alliances. From an ethical point of view, we must notice the negative impact of infodemic, both on public health and on humanity in general; this can lead to deviations from democracy and human rights and, ultimately, to the dehumanization of society through the emphasis on social anxiety and the exacerbation of desocializing fears, which increase social distancing far beyond the limit of the physical distancing necessary to combat the pandemic.
