Older Lesbians, Gay Men and the ‘Right to Die’ Debate: ‘I Always Keep a Lethal Dose of Something, Because I don’t Want to Become an Elderly Isolated Person’

TY - JOUR

T1 - Older Lesbians, Gay Men and the ‘Right to Die’ Debate

T2 - ‘I Always Keep a Lethal Dose of Something, Because I don’t Want to Become an Elderly Isolated Person’

AU - Westwood, Sue

PY - 2017/10/1

Y1 - 2017/10/1

N2 - This article considers the ‘right to die’ debate from the perspectives of older lesbians and gay men, drawing upon data gathered for a PhD in law. My argument is that older lesbians and gay men are multiply disadvantaged (a) by an increased risk of feeling that life is not worth living due to affective inequalities (inadequate informal and formal social support) and (b) by a denial of access to the right to die both under such circumstances and/or if they wish to resist the normativities associated with a passive, medicalized death. I argue for the need to distinguish between a wish to die because of deficiencies in the care system and a wish to die in order to control how, when and where one’s life ends. My analysis highlights the contextual contingencies of ‘vulnerability’ in relation to the right to die and interrogates the heterosexist and disciplinary reproductive normativities underpinning the notions of ‘natural’ deaths.

AB - This article considers the ‘right to die’ debate from the perspectives of older lesbians and gay men, drawing upon data gathered for a PhD in law. My argument is that older lesbians and gay men are multiply disadvantaged (a) by an increased risk of feeling that life is not worth living due to affective inequalities (inadequate informal and formal social support) and (b) by a denial of access to the right to die both under such circumstances and/or if they wish to resist the normativities associated with a passive, medicalized death. I argue for the need to distinguish between a wish to die because of deficiencies in the care system and a wish to die in order to control how, when and where one’s life ends. My analysis highlights the contextual contingencies of ‘vulnerability’ in relation to the right to die and interrogates the heterosexist and disciplinary reproductive normativities underpinning the notions of ‘natural’ deaths.

KW - Assisted dying

KW - euthanasia

KW - inequality

KW - older lesbians and gay men

KW - vulnerability

KW - ‘right to die’

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85031284925&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0964663917693916

DO - 10.1177/0964663917693916

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85031284925

SN - 0964-6639

VL - 26

SP - 606

EP - 628

JO - Social and Legal Studies

JF - Social and Legal Studies

IS - 5

ER -