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Killing and Letting Die / Bonnie Steinbock, Alastair Norcross.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Steinbock, Bonnie, Author.
- Norcross, Alastair, Author.
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (431 p.)
- Place of Publication:
- New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2023]
- Language Note:
- In English.
- Summary:
- This collection contains twenty-one thought-provoking essays on the controversies surrounding the moral and legal distinctions between euthanasia and "letting die." Since public awareness of this issue has increased this second edition includes nine entirely new essays which bring the treatment of the subject up-to-date. The urgency of this issue can be gauged in recent developments such as the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in the Netherlands, "how-to" manuals topping the bestseller charts in the United States, and the many headlines devoted to Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has assisted dozens of patients to die. The essays address the range of questions involved in this issue pertaining especially to the fields of medical ethics, public policymaking, and social philosophy. The discussions consider the decisions facing medical and public policymakers, how those decisions will affect the elderly and terminally ill, and the medical and legal ramifications for patients in a permanently vegetative state, as well as issues of parent/infant rights. The book is divided into two sections. The first, "Euthanasia and the Termination of Life-Prolonging Treatment" includes an examination of the 1976 Karen Quinlan Supreme Court decision and selections from the 1990 Supreme Court decision in the case of Nancy Cruzan. Featured are articles by law professor George Fletcher and philosophers Michael Tooley, James Rachels, and Bonnie Steinbock, with new articles by Rachels, and Thomas Sullivan. The second section, "Philosophical Considerations," probes more deeply into the theoretical issues raised by the killing/letting die controversy, illustrating exceptionally well the dispute between two rival theories of ethics, consequentialism and deontology. It also includes a corpus of the standard thought on the debate by Jonathan Bennet, Daniel Dinello, Jeffrie Murphy, John Harris, Philipa Foot, Richard Trammell, and N. Ann Davis, and adds articles new to this edition by Bennett, Foot, Warren Quinn, Jeff McMahan, and Judith Lichtenberg.
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- Introduction
- PART I: EUTHANASIA AND THE TERMINATION OF LIFE-PROLONGING TREATMENT
- 1. In the Matter of Karen Quinlan
- 2. Majority Opinion in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (selections)
- 3. Prolonging Life: Some Legal considerations
- 4. An Irrelevant Consideration: Killing Versus Letting D~
- 5. Active and Passive Euthanasia
- 6. The Intentional Termination of Life
- 7. Active and Passive Euthanasia: An Impertinent Distinction?
- 8. More Impertinent Distinctions and a Defense of Active Euthanasia
- 9. Coming to Terms: a Response to Rachels
- PART II: PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS
- 10. Whatever the Consequences
- 11. On Killing and Letting Die
- 12. Is Killing the Innocent Absolutely Immoral?
- 13. The Moral Equivalence of Action and Omission
- 14. Negation and Abstention: Two Theories of Allowing
- 15. The Survival Lottery
- 16. The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect
- 17. Killing and Letting Die
- 18. Saving Life and Taking Life
- 19. The Priority of Avoiding Harm
- 20. Actions, Intentions, and Consequences: The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing
- 21. Killing, Letting Die, and Withdrawing Aid
- Suggested Readings
- Notes on Contributors
- Notes:
- Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)
- ISBN:
- 0-8232-9596-6
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