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Biomedical subjects

D W Amundsen

Publications and source records attributed to D W Amundsen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

The Ninth Circuit Court's treatment of the history of suicide by Ancient Jews and Christians in Compassion in Dying v. State of Washington: historical naivete or special pleading?

In this article, Prof. Darrel Amundsen critiques Judge Reinhardt's comments regarding "Historical Attitudes Toward Suicide" in his Compassion in Dying opinion. Amundsen demonstrates that the court's characterization of ancient Jewish and Christian practices is inaccurate and misleading because it fails to acknowledge the complexities of the moral issue of suicide. Amundsen discusses martyrdom, suicide in general, suicide by the ill, and euthanasia in ancient Judaism. In contrast to the court's commentary, Amundsen demonstrates that regard for human life is a central feature of Jewish ethical monotheism. Furthermore, the author challenges the court's conclusions about early Christianity, and explains why its treatment of the issue of suicide in early Christianity is misleading and inaccurate. Amundsen's discussion of early Christianity includes suicide, martyrdom, and especially the Augustinian teaching on suicide. He concludes that the court's treatment of the issue of suicide in early Christianity is so historically and conceptually muddled as to be fundamentally inaccurate.

Bible↗
PubMed1995

Tatian's 'rejection' of medicine in the second century.

The question why Tatian, often misrepresented as an opponent of medicine per se, chose to condemn only pharmacology, has never been directly raised. His conviction that pharmakeia was a demonic lure can only be explained in the context of both popular and medical attitudes toward drugs. The basic meaning of pharmaka ranges from sorcery to poison to medicinal drugs. Some people regarded them as categorically similar to substances used by brute beasts to cure themselves, a minority of physicians refused to administer them at all, whereas many revered them as virtually divine, 'hands of the gods'. Hence, in Tatian's view, they were spiritually dangerous for Christians.

Christianity↗