Private thoughts of public representatives: assisted death, voluntary euthanasia and politicians

Assisted death and voluntary euthanasia have received significant and sustained media attention in recent years. High-profile cases of people seeking assistance to end their lives have raised, at least in the popular press, debate about whether individuals should be able to seek such assistance at a time when they consider their suffering to be unbearable or their quality of life unsatisfactory. Other recent developments include a number of attempts to legislate on the issue by the minor parties in Australia and the successful enactment of legislation in a few overseas jurisdictions. However, despite all of the recent attention that has focused on assisted death and voluntary euthanasia, a discussion of the adequacy of existing laws has not made it onto the political agenda of any of the Australian State or Territory governments. This is in spite of the fact that the private views of the majority of our elected Members of Parliament may be supportive of reform. This article explores the role of politicians' views and, as a case study, considers the opinions expressed by a number of Queensland Members of Parliament. In light of the views of these politicians and those of members of the public, as well as considerations arising from current medical practice, the article argues that there is a need for open political debate on assisted death and voluntary euthanasia. The article also suggests ways that such a debate may be achieved while minimising any political impact on governments that are prepared at least to consider this issue.     

Feminists and femininity: A case-study of WSPU propaganda and local response at a Scottish by-election

This article examines the attitudes towards femininity expressed by the WSPU speakers at the 1907 Aberdeen by-election and the response these attitudes elicited from Aberdonians. Although the evidence suggests that a majority of the local population accepted the WSPU's demand for votes (for tax-paying women only) on the grounds of equality, the WSPU felt a need to emphasize the expediency of its proposal. In order to argue that such an extension of the franchise would benefit all women WSPU speakers emphasized the priority of sex over all other social divisions but deliberately accepted the specific differences assumed in popular concepts of ‘femininity’ rather than drawing attention to the male ideology and social institutions in which such definitions originated. Some of the imputed feminine attributes which led Aberdeen men and women of all classes to accept the popular stereotype of domestic woman are examined, as are the difficulties the WSPU encountered because its campaigning activities clashed with its own concept of woman, a difficulty shared by other women's association in Aberdeen.     

The American Revolution and Christine Desan's New History of Money

This essay argues that Christine Desan's Making Money: Coin, Currency and the Coming of Capitalism intervenes decisively in debates over the origin of money, while making a fundamental contribution to the legal history of money, the philosophy of money, and the history of capitalism. Desan shows money to be a mode of governance, created by rulers to extend their power, and maintained and managed by their successors. She argues that British politicians reinvented money at the end of the seventeenth century, creating the essential institutional basis for contemporary capitalism. The essay builds on Desan's analysis, showing how the tools she develops to understand the origins and development of British money can help us explain the expansion of capitalism, and the transition to capitalism associated with the American Revolution.