Many people believe that pain is the most common reason that people ask for euthanasia, but pain is well down the list. The three most common reasons are feelings of loss of dignity, loss of independence and of being a burden on others.
Author Archives: Margaret Somerville
Margaret Somerville AM, DSG, FRSC, DCL is Professor of Bioethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia School of Medicine (Sydney campus). She is also Samuel Gale Professor of Law Emerita, Professor Emerita in the Faculty of Medicine, and Founding Director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law Emerita at McGill University, Montreal.
She has an extensive national and international publishing and speaking record and frequently comments in all forms of media.
Her books include The Ethical Canary: Science, Society and the Human Spirit (Penguin 2000); The Ethical Imagination: Journeys of the Human Spirit (Anansi 2006; CBC 2006 Massey Lectures) and Bird on an Ethics Wire: Battles about values in the culture wars (MQUP 2015).
Among her many honours and awards are the Order of Australia, Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada, eight honorary doctorates, and the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science.
