The Right to Die Debate: The Demonization of Dr. Kevorkian and the Creation of a Moral Panic Surrounding Physician-Assisted Suicide in the United States

The Right to Die Debate is a recent but highly controversial moral matter. In particular, physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is an issue that has been evaded by the medical community for years. As of 1990, most states had never encountered the issue before and therefore did not have any laws in place to prohibit PAS (Strate et. al, 2005). Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist from Royal Oak Michigan was the first to publicly address PAS. He brought the issue into the limelight through a bizarre and crude series of assisted deaths that had a lasting impact on not only the Right to Die Debate as whole, but on public policy and both federal and state governmental agendas. This study focuses on the way in which the media, in particular the New York Times (NYT) has portrayed Dr. Jack Kevorkian as incompetent, morally culpable and in an overall negative light in the past twenty years. Applying Stanley Cohen’s 1972 theory of moral panic, a content analysis of NYT media publications between 1990 and 1999 supports Cohen’s theory and reveals that the media has created a moral panic surrounding Kevorkian. This has in turn led to public policy that prevents both terminally ill individuals and their doctors from having a desirable choice; that of voluntary euthanasia and PAS.

The statutory rape crisis: a moral panic?

In this thesis I argue that the statutory rape crisis which materialised following the decisions in CC v Ireland and A v The Governor of Arbour Hill Prison, was a moral panic. I also contend that Mr A, a convicted sex offender who was released during the crisis, was a folk devil. Using data obtained from an ethnographic content analysis of a selection of newspapers, interest group statements, and Oireachtas debates, I demonstrate that the social response to the statutory rape crisis exhibits the key indicators of the moral panic phenomenon put forward by Goode and Ben-Yehuda. These key indicators are: concern, consensus, hostility, disproportionality and volatility. I employ the theory of moral panic to explain why the events of the statutory rape crisis ignited such emotion and why Mr A became a folk devil of the moral panic

Criminalising the payment for sex in northern ireland; sketching the contours of a moral panic

This paper examines recent legislative developments in Northern Ireland around Lord Morrow’s Human Trafficking & Exploitation (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill that was passed unanimously in the Northern Ireland Assembly and which uniquely in the United Kingdom now makes it a criminal offence to pay for sexual services. I suggest that issues around sex trafficking, sexual slavery and prostitution in Northern Ireland bear all the hallmarks of Stan Cohen’s famous articulation of a moral panic (Cohen 1972) but also argue that his original for- mulation needs to be recast slightly to take account of the horizontal structuring of moral panics in contemporary society.

Pippi Longstocking, juvenile delinquent? Hachette, self-censorship and the moral reconstruction of postwar France

This paper looks at the blockages to the publication of children’s literature caused by the intellectual climate of the postwar era, through a case study of the editorial policy of Hachette, the largest publisher for children at this time. This period witnessed heightened tensions surrounding the social and humanitarian responsibilities of literature. Writers were blamed for having created a culture of defeatism, and collaborationist authors were punished harshly in the purges. In the case of children’s literature, the discourse on responsibility was made more urgent by the assumption that children were easily influenced by their reading material, and by the centrality of the young to the discourse on the moral reconstruction of France. As the politician and education reformer Gustave Monod put it: “penser l’avenir, c’est penser le sort des enfants et de la jeunesse.” These concerns led to the expansion of associations and publications dedicated to protecting children and promoting “good” reading matter for them, and, famously, to the 1949 law regulating publications for children, which banned the depiction of crime, debauchery and violence that might demoralise young readers. Using the testimonials of former employees, along with readers’ reports and editorial correspondence preserved in the Hachette archives, this paper will examine how individual editorial decisions and self-censorship strategies were shaped by the 1949 law with its attendant discourse of moral panic on children’s reading, and how national concerns for future citizens were balanced with commercial imperatives.

Vítimas invisíveis: o pânico moral acerca do tráfico de pessoas para exploração sexual por uma perspectiva de gênero

Pós-graduação em Direito - FCHS

Les effets politiques des spectacles médiatiques d’immigration : une analyse critique des discours de la presse écrite canadienne sur l’arrivée du MV Sun Sea

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur les effets politiques des discours médiatiques sur la gouvernance et la régulation des demandeurs d’asile au Canada. À travers une analyse critique des discours de la presse écrite canadienne au sujet de l’arrivée en août 2010 de 492 requérants du statut de réfugié à bord du bateau MV Sun Sea en Colombie-Britannique, l’auteure identifie les principales interprétations de cet évènement ainsi que leurs relations avec la mise en place subséquente de mesures visant à restreindre les possibilités d’accès non autorisés au Canada, notamment par la création d’une nouvelle catégorisation discriminatoire des demandeurs d’asile. L’analyse révèle l’articulation de ces discours autour de deux thématiques distinctes, mais interreliées. Tandis que les discours sécuritaires associent l’arrivée non autorisée des demandeurs d’asile à une menace à la sécurité de la nation, les discours humanitaires interprètent cet évènement comme une demande d’aide de la part d’un groupe de personnes menacées par leur propre pays. Ce mémoire propose une analyse multidimensionnelle de ces deux cadrages et de leurs effets politiques qui considère leurs dimensions discursives, contextuelles et affectives. L’analyse démontre comment ces deux discours en apparence conflictuels partagent en fait un même sous-texte racial qui fait de ce type de spectacle médiatique un dispositif clé de « gouvernementalité racialisée de l’immigration » (Bilge, 2012, 2013).

Discurso y política sobre procesos de Desarme, Desmovilización y Reintegración en Bogotá: La representación de los desmovilizados en el diario El Tiempo (2005 - 2010)

Los procesos de Desarme, Desmovilización y Reintegración (DDR) han sido tema central en la agenda pública y la forma en que los medios nos presentan a los diferentes protagonistas del conflicto, nos ha acercado a ellos y a la realidad de ese fenómeno desde una mirada en particular. En esta monografía se analiza la representación discursiva construida por el diario El Tiempo sobre procesos de DDR y sus actores protagónicos, los desmovilizados, en la ciudad de Bogotá, entre 2005 y 2010; a lo largo del texto se reflexiona sobre la influencia que puede tener el discurso de los medios de comunicación en la manera que la sociedad podría ver y responder a ese grupo social que busca reintegrarse a la vida civil. El trabajo se realiza a través de un análisis del discurso, en este caso, del discurso periodístico emitido por el diario El Tiempo y se abordan elementos de la teoría del pánico moral. La llegada constante y creciente de desmovilizados a la capital del país conllevó a que el trato que debía dársele a la situación hiciera parte de diferentes discursos políticos y mediáticos; por tanto, el discurso del diario se contrasta con la política local de atención a desmovilizados, específicamente con el "Programa de Atención al Proceso de Desmovilización y Reintegración en Bogotá (PAPDRB)", a fin de diferenciar el tratamiento que le dieron al fenómeno.

Framing Death. La morte in diretta, tra cinema e media digitali

Come dimostrano i sempre più numerosi casi di cronaca riportati dai notiziari, la preoccupazione per la gestione delle immagini di morte si configura come un nodo centrale che coinvolge spettatori, produttori di contenuti e broadcaster, dato che la sua emersione nel panorama mediale in cui siamo immersi è sempre più evidente. Se la letteratura socio-antropologica è generalmente concorde nel ritenere che, rispetto al passato, oggi la morte si manifesti con meno evidenza nella vita comune delle persone, che tendono a rimuovere i segni della contiguità vivendo il lutto in forma privata, essa è però percepita in modo pervasivo perché disseminata nei (e dai) media. L'elaborato, concentrandosi in maniera specifica sulle produzioni audiovisive, e quindi sulla possibilità intrinseca al cinema – e alle sue forme derivate – di registrare un evento in diretta, tenta di mappare alcune dinamiche di produzione e fruizione considerando una particolare manifestazione della morte: quella che viene comunemente indicata come “morte in diretta”. Dopo una prima ricognizione dedicata alla tensione continua tra la spinta a considerare la morte come l'ultimo tabù e le manifestazioni che essa assume all'interno della “necrocultura”, appare chiaro che il paradigma pornografico risulta ormai inefficace a delineare compiutamente le emersioni della morte nei media, soggetta a opacità e interdizioni variabili, e necessita dunque di prospettive analitiche più articolate. Il fulcro dell'analisi è dunque la produzione e il consumo di precisi filoni quali snuff, cannibal e mondo movie e quelle declinazioni del gore che hanno ibridato reale e fittizio: il tentativo è tracciare un percorso che, a partire dal cinema muto, giunga al panorama contemporaneo e alle pratiche di remix rese possibili dai media digitali, toccando episodi controversi come i Video Nasties, le dinamiche di moral panic scatenate dagli snuff film e quelle di contagio derivanti dalla manipolazione e diffusione delle immagini di morte.

Politics vs economics: unintended consequences of Governments’ interventions in airlines’ markets

Overlaying theories of market inefficiencies and/or failure onto airline economics indicates that the industry encounters at least seven of the indicators which have triggered interventions by national, multi-national or supranational governments (NMSGs) trying to resolve political, social or environmental problems. The NMSGs’ interventions aimed to resolve lack of competition, fill missing markets, and neuter the presence of negative externalities, free riders, social inequalities and moral panic. Desk research showed that their interventions (many lacking preliminary economic analysis) either intentionally solved and/or unintentionally triggered market inefficiencies or failures. It is possible that some of the interventions could eventually make advanced world airlines subsidise their advancing world competitors.

Violence gratuite et adolescents-bourreaux : Réception, traduction et enjeux de deux romans suédois pour adolescents, en France, au début des années 2000

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to a better understanding of the role of Swedish literature for adolescents in the French literary scene in the early 2000s. The sociology of literature constitutes the main theoretical framework of this thesis. Drawing from examples that broach the sensitive topic of "unprovoked violence" as it is treated in two Swedish novels for teenagers, Spelar död [Play Death] by Stefan Casta and När tågen går förbi (Train Wreck) by Malin Lindroth, this thesis shows how these novels are innovative in Even-Zohar’s sense of the term, as addressed in his Polysystem Theory (1990). By introducing "unprovoked violence" and violent teenagers via a realistic genre, such works filled a vacuum in the French system and injected a new dynamic into it. This dynamic makes it possible for new literary models to be introduced in the system and to change the standards of that system. The analyses of the French and Swedish receptions of the two novels mentioned above show that they gave rise to a moral panic in France, which is not an unusual thing to happen in periods of ongoing change. This also clarifies the differences in norms between the two systems. The French system tends to reject dark topics, while the Swedish wishes to discuss them. The investigations of the translations of unprovoked violence show that adherence to Swedish norms determine the translation’s adequacy (Toury), which may be part of the reason for the stormy reception the two works received in France, and their undergoing censure. The position of translators and publishers in the literary system also plays a major role for a translated text not being censured during the transfer from one system to another. Even if the Swedish titles translated into French are few, this thesis shows that the impact of Swedish literature on adolescents in France is certain. By introducing new and sensitive topics, such novels could be early markers of an evolution of the French field of literature for adolescents.

Panika moralna w dyskursie publicznym. Rosjanie wobec współczesnej imigracji z Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej.

Wydział Nauk Społecznych: Instytut Socjologii

A formação de personalidades éticas: representações de si e moral

The article presents studies of a current investigation among 75 adolescents from 12 to 15 years old, students of private schools of Campinas city, that have as main objective to notice a possible correspondence among the moral judgments and the representation that individuals have about themselves. From a questionnaire, the studies bring out the representations of these individuals and answer a questioning if they would have an ethical character or not and if these individuals would correspond to their moral judgments. The results point out to a correspondence among those whose self representations are characterized by more evolved ethical contents and judgments related to sensitivity and to the characters feelings involved in the situations described. Such studies validate the intention of this article to discuss the correspondences between ethics (how the individual sees himself/herself) and moral (how he/she judges the situations moral).

Modelos organizadores do pensamento: uma perspectiva de pesquisa sobre o raciocínio moral com adolescentes autores de infração

This article has the aim to expand the perspective of research in the field of morality. We present a proposal of morality study of outlaw teenagers according to Thinking Organizer Models Theory. Through the idea of complexity we search to understand the cognitive process in the elaboration of moral reasoning inside situations of conflict. With this perspective, we developed a research that aimed to identify which organizer models were applied by 20 outlaw male teenagers who abide by social punishment to solve the hypothetical moral conflicts. Through interviews we told them a situation of moral conflict that involved friendship relation, physical aggression and steal. We could identified several models which were joined in three categories. Such models reflected the diversity and regularity that are present inside the elaborated reasoning to solve the conflicts shown by us. We conclude that the diversity of organizer models identified shows the importance of the contents in the construction of moral reasoning.

O jogo e o desenvolvimento moral nas aulas de educação física

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física