Call for Papers: "Euthanasia: The right to a life and a dignified death"


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Call for Papers "Euthanasia: The right to a life and a dignified death"

 

In recent years, several countries — including some in Latin America — have been promoting initiatives through their parliaments or courts to allow individuals with incurable and degenerative illnesses to access medically assisted death upon request.

The principles underlying medical assistance in dying, whether through euthanasia or assisted suicide, are based on dignity, self-determination, the right to make decisions about one’s own body, freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment, and the concept of private life that does not affect others. Palliative care also forms part of this debate in varied ways. The discussions emerging across the globe invite us to question why some countries have legalized this right while others persist in treating assistance in dying as a criminal offense. Perspectives on the issue vary, encompassing bioethics, religion, law, and philosophy.

This call for papers by the journal Salud Colectiva seeks to open the discussion among diverse arguments and positions, both at the individual and collective levels, to critically examine this issue. The journal invites submissions that focus on the study of end-of-life issues from the various disciplines involved in this debate, including medicine, nursing, sociology, anthropology, law, religion, bioethics, public policy, and public health, among others. Submissions may also include case studies that illustrate the situations faced by individuals requesting medical assistance in dying, as well as those of their families and the healthcare professionals involved in end-of-life care.

The call for papers will be coordinated by the following professionals:

  • Camila Jaramillo: Researcher at DescLAB. Colombian attorney from the Universidad de Los Andes. Master of Laws from the University of California, Berkeley.
  • Josefina Miró Quesada: Attorney from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Master’s in Criminology from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
  • Octavi Quintana Trias: Director of PRIMA, the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area. Specialist in Intensive Medicine. Director of International Affairs, Ministry of Health, Spain.
  • Marta Verdi: Chair of the Giovanni Berlinguer Bioethics and Public Health Program, Graduate Program in Public Health, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil.
  • Mario Sebastiani: Physician and Doctor of Medicine. University Professor at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Universidad del Hospital Italiano. Member of the Bioethics Committee, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

 

Submission of original articles

Works must be original and unpublished and written in Spanish, English or Portuguese. As of 2019, the journal accepts works previously deposited in the preprint platforms SocArXiv, bioRxiv, arXiv, PsyArXiv or SciELO Preprints. All manuscripts will be subject to a preliminary review to determine whether the article meets the goals, editorial policies and standards of the journal. If the article is deemed eligible in this pre-evaluation, the authors will be notified and the peer review process will commence. Regardless of the submission language, works accepted will be published in Spanish or bilingually in both English and Spanish [see Submission and publication languages]. The journal covers the costs of editing, publishing and distribution, and authors must cover the costs of translation.

All works must be submitted via the journal website using the option. For more details, see “How to submit your paper." The basic formal requirements are as follows:

File 1: Authorship page

  • Reference to the call for papers "Euthanasia: The right to a life and a dignified death"
  • Authorship information: first and last names for each author; last academic degree earned; current position and institution; country; e-mail address, ORCiD code.
  • Acknowledgements: names of the institutions and/or persons to be thanked for their contributions (excluding financial contributions). 
  • Funding: If a grant or funds have been provided to finance the research, the cover page must include the name of the funding agency and the research approval number or code. 
  • Conflict of interests: The mention of a conflict of interest does not imply the rejection of the article. Any real or potential conflict of interest, any obligations on the part of the author/s with regards to sources of funding, or any other type of relationship or rivalry that may be deemed to create a conflict of interest must be explained.
  • Author contribution: In accordance with the CRediT – Contributor Roles Taxonomy, the cover page must describe the contribution made by each author [ver Authorship].

File 2: Article anonymised

  • Reference to the call for papers "Euthanasia: The right to a life and a dignified death"
  • Title of article: in both Spanish and English.
  • Article abstract: no more than 12 lines written in a single paragraph without structuring titles, in Spanish and English.
  • Keywords: 3-5 Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) or Health Science Descriptors (DeCS), using the option “DeCS search".
  • Suggested maximum length: 7,000 words (not including abstract, references and tables or figures).
  • Submission languages: texts must be submitted in Spanish. Authors who are not Spanish-speaking may submit works in Portuguese or English. If they are accepted, they will be published in Spanish or bilingually in both Spanish and English. The journal will cover editing, publishing, and distribution costs, and authors must cover the cost of translation [see Submission and publication languages].
  • Endnotes and footnotes: Due to the new electronic editing process, neither endnotes nor footnotes may be included. All necessary clarifications must be provided throughout the text.
  • Quotation: If the article contains quotations of texts published in other languages, the quotation must be translated into the submission language and the original quotation must be also included.
  • Figures and tables: No more than seven tables and/or figures will be accepted. They must be submitted within the same file as the text, at the end of the text, and must include the following:
    • Consecutive numbering (tables and figures must be numbered independently, in series according to their designation).
    • A descriptive title specifying the geographic and temporal dimensions of the data presented.
    • The source of the data used.
  • Data deposit: Research teams must ensure the availability of research data and, in the event that the article is accepted, must deposit the dataset in SciELO Data [see Data Deposit Policy].
  • Research Ethics: If the research has been carried out using human subjects (including ethnographies using in-depth interviews or any other type of research in which people participate), the text must contain (in the Methodology section) an explanation of the informed consent obtained from participants and the approval of research protocol by the relevant Ethics Committee.
  • References: Correlative numbering system (Vancouver) based on the style of the National Library of Medicine. Maximum: 100 references.

File 3: Conflict of interest and ethical aspects, originality and publication rights

The Declarations of Ethical Aspects, Conflicts of Interest, Originality and Publication Rights must be downloaded, filled out and included as Supplementary Files in Step 2 "Upload Submission" of the submission process. [Download Declaration CIEA-OPR].

Additional information 

Article processing charge (APC): Salud Colectiva does not charge for editorial processing of articles. All editing, publishing and distribution costs are funded by the Instituto de Salud Colectiva of the Universidad Nacional de Lanús.

Open Access policy: Salud Colectiva ratifies the Open Access model in which scientific publications are made freely available in full text online, with no embargo periods and with no publication costs falling on the authors. Authors are offered full access to the final published versions so as to include them in institutional repositories. All of the material included in Salud Colectiva is published under a Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Submission period

Given that the thematic issue has guest editors from different countries, a specific timeframe is proposed for article submission. Thus, articles may be submitted for evaluation from September 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025.

Submission deadline | September 30, 2025

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For more information: revistasaludcolectiva@gmail.com
Salud Colectiva | ISSN 1669-2381 | E-ISSN 1851-8265 
Universidad Nacional de Lanús | Instituto de Salud Colectiva 
Buenos Aires, Argentina