2nd Arts & Humanities Conference, Florence

EROTICISM, DYING AND ADVANCED AGE – BIOETHICAL APPROACH.

MONIKA MICHAŁOWSKA

Abstract:

The issues of eroticism, of dying and of ageing have been broadly covered in bioethical literature. It comes as no surprise as all of them constitute fundamental realms of human life. It can be argued that in many ways they define our lives, they decide about the way we understand and express ourselves, the way we understand our existence, and also the way we define and build our relationships with others. Therefore, it seems interesting to investigate whether they are treated in bioethical subject literature with comparable attention. In my presentation I will focus on the aspects of bioethical debate that take interest in the issue of the sexuality/eroticism of the elderly as well as the one of the sexuality of the patients at the terminal stage of the disease. I will have a closer look at the conceptualizations of the themes, the ideas of entwining: a) the eroticism with dying, b) eroticism with advanced age; c) eroticism, dying with advanced age. I will concentrate on stereotypes and clichés concerning these issues present in bioethical and medical texts. It will give us some insight into the reasons why this problem has been given rather little attention and recognition in bioethical literature.

Keywords: sexuality, eroticism, ageing, dying, terminal stage

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