Defining the Beginning and End of Life: Readings on Personal Identity and Bioethics

by Lizza, John P.

• ISBN13: 9780801893377
• ISBN10: 0801893372
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-01
• Publisher: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV PRESS

Summary

This collection of essays examines alternative theories about persons and personal identity at the beginning and end of life. The contributions seek to answer the important question, When does a person begin and cease to exist?While the concept of personhood has figured prominently in contemporary debates over abortion and stem cell research, this is the first anthology to combine in a single volume both various theoretical perspectives and consideration of the more practical, bioethical issues. These essays are gathered from a rich tradition of philosophical and religious readings on the subject, from René Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy and John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding to more modern discussions on persons living with dementia and on the definition of death.Organized chronologically, these works address three broad topics: theories of persons, persons at the beginning of life, and persons at the end of life. The first section offers differing views on the nature of persons that have influenced ontological and bioethical discussions of the subject. Essays in the next section track the debate over abortion and the moral status of embryos. The last section explores alternative definitions and determinations of death.Defining the Beginning and End of Life is a useful resource for examining the connection between theoretical and bioethical considerations about persons. It will engage bioethicists and philosophers as well as inform policy and law regarding issues at the beginning and end of life.

Author Biography

John P. Lizza is a professor and the chair of the Department of Philosophy at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania and author of Persons, Humanity, and the Definition of Death, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
List of Authors	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Theories of Persons
Persons As Immaterial Souls Or Minds
Selections from the Phaedo	p. 24
Selections from Meditations on First Philosophy	p. 30
Selections from "Personal Identity: The Dualist Theory"	p. 42
Persons As Ensouled Bodies
Selections from Summa Theologiae	p. 55
Terra es animata: On Having a Life	p. 61
Persons As Human Organisms
An Argument for Animalism	p. 80
Persons As Psychological Qualities Or Functions
Selection from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding	p. 99
The Unimportance of Identity	p. 117
Persons As Psychological Substances
Persons	p. 144
Real Selves: Persons as a Substantial Kind	p. 166
Persons As Constituted By Bodies
The Ontological Status of Persons	p. 189
Persons As Relational Beings
Selections from Part III of Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist	p. 211
The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man	p. 219
Selection from Personal Being	p. 239
Selection from Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First	p. 247
Persons As Self-Conscious Beings
Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person	p. 263
Persons at the Beginning of Life
Jewish Perspectives on Abortion	p. 281
When Do People Begin?	p. 294
Thomism and the Beginning of Personhood	p. 317
Individuals, Humans, and Persons: The Issue of Moral Status	p. 339
On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion	p. 351
Ethics and Embryos	p. 368
When Does a Person Begin?	p. 384
Persons at the End of Life
The Biophilosophical Basis of Whole-Brain Death	p. 413
The Definition of Death in Jewish Law	p. 434
An Unfounded Diagnosis: Revisiting the Medical and Metaphysical Justifications of "Brain Death"	p. 446
St. Thomas on the Beginning and Ending of Human Life	p. 469
The Impending Collapse of the Whole-Brain Definition of Death	p. 483
Against the Stream: Comments on the Definition and Redefinition of Death	p. 498
Brain Death and Personal Identity	p. 507
On the Definition of Death	p. 533
Selection from Controversies in the Determination of Death: A White Paper	p. 551
Index	p. 567
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