Life and Death A Reader in Moral Problems

by Pojman, Louis P.

• ISBN13: 9780534508258
• ISBN10: 0534508251
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-09
• Publisher: Cengage Learning

Summary

This anthology examines 11 key issues dealing with the beginning and end of life, and presents a balanced set of 67 classic and contemporary readings on each of them. It is unique in its coverage of applied ethics, medical topics, and broad theoretical considerations of issues of life and death-the sanctity of life versus the quality of life, and the meaning of life and death. The section on Ethical Theory covers the classic theories as well as ethical relativism to orient students to the nature and importance of ethics. The section on the sanctity of life versus the quality of life examines a vital but often neglected issue in moral philosophy. Introductions and study questions accompany each major reading.

Author Biography

Louis P. Pojman teaches philosophy at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY. He received his Ph.D. from Oxford University.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Ethical Theories	p. 1
Classical Theories	p. 4
Immanual Kant: Deontological Ethics	p. 4
John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism	p. 18
Thomas Hobbes: Contractual Ethics	p. 25
Relativism and Objectivism	p. 36
Herodotus: Custom Is King	p. 36
Ruth Benedict: A Defense of Ethical Relativism	p. 37
Louis P. Pojman: A Defense of Ethical Objectivism	p. 43
The Sanctity of Life and the Quality of Life	p. 55
The Bible: Genesis and Psalm 8: The Devine Creation of Humanity	p. 58
Albert Schweitzer: Reverence for Life	p. 60
Jonathan Glover: Against the Sanctity of Life Doctrine	p. 68
H. Tristram Englehardt, Jr.: The Sanctity of Life and the Concept of a Person	p. 77
Daniel Callahan: The Sanctity of Life Principle: The New Consensus	p. 84
Death and the Meaning of Life	p. 99
Plato: Death and Immortality	p. 101
Epicurus: Death Is Nothing to Us	p. 105
Richard Taylor: Does Life Have a Meaning?	p. 111
Lois Hope Walker: Religion and the Meaning of Life and Death	p. 119
Jeffrie Murphy: Rationality and the Fear of Death	p. 123
Prasannatma Das: A Hindu Theory of Life and Death	p. 132
Suicide	p. 137
Thomas Aquinas: Suicide Is Unnatural and Immoral	p. 139
David Hume: On the Naturalness of Suicide	p. 142
Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd	p. 147
Richard Brandt: On the Morality and Rationality of Suicide	p. 152
Margaret Pabst Battin: Suicide: A Fundamental Right?	p. 161
Euthanasia	p. 173
Yale Kamisar: Against Legalizing Euthanasia	p. 176
Glanville Williams: For Legalizing Euthanasia: A Rejoinder	p. 184
James Rachels: Active and Passive Euthanasia	p. 190
Thomas D. Sullivan: Active and Passive Euthanasia: An Impertinent Distinction?	p. 195
The Oregon Law on the Right to Die	p. 200
What Is Death? The Crisis of Criteria	p. 203
Robert M. Veatch: Defining Death Anew	p. 207
David J. Mayo and Daniel Wikler: Euthanasia and the Transition from Life to Death	p. 220
Abortion	p. 233
John T. Noonan, Jr.: Abortion Is Morally Wrong	p. 235
Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion	p. 240
Baruch Brody: Against an Absolute Right to Abortion	p. 252
Mary Anne Warren: The Personhood Argument in Favor of Abortion	p. 261
Harry J. Gensler: The Golden Rule Argument Against Abortion	p. 268
Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral	p. 279
Gerald H. Paske: Abortion and the Neo-Natal Right to Life: A Critique of Marquis's Futurist Argument	p. 293
Human Cloning	p. 303
Leon R. Kass: The Wisdom of Repugnance	p. 308
National Bioethics Advisory Board: Against Cloning Human Beings	p. 327
Richard Lewontin: The Confusion over Cloning	p. 341
Gregory E. Pence: Will Cloning Harm People?	p. 349
The Death Penalty	p. 361
Immanual Kant: Retributivism: The Right to Capital Punishment	p. 368
Thurgood Marshall: The Death Penalty Is a Denial of Human Dignity	p. 371
Burton Leiser: A Retributivist Justification of the Death Penalty	p. 375
Hugo Adam Bedau: Against Retributive Justification of the Death Penalty	p. 381
Sidney Hook: The Death Sentence: Limited Use	p. 389
Ernest van den Haag and Louis Schwartz: The Death Penalty: Pro and Con	p. 391
Animal Rights	p. 395
Immanual Kant: We Have Only Indirect Duties to Animals	p. 398
Peter Singer: All Animals Are Equal	p. 400
R. G. Frey: A Utilitarian Critique of Animal Rights	p. 411
Tom Regan: The Radical Egalitarian Case for Animal Rights	p. 422
Robert White: The Case for Animal Experimentation	p. 431
Tom Regan: The Case Against Animal Experimentation	p. 435
Mary Anne Warren: Difficulties with the Strong Animal Rights Position	p. 445
Carl Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights	p. 453
James Rachels: Vegetarianism and "The Other Weight Problem"	p. 457
War	p. 467
Robert Phillips: Just War Theory	p. 472
Jan Narveson: A Critique of Pacifism	p. 479
Cheyney Ryan: A Defense of Pacifism	p. 489
The U.S. Catholics Bishops: Against the Use of Nuclear Weapons	p. 493
Charles Krauthammer: On Nuclear Morality	p. 499
Douglas Lackey: Missiles and Morals	p. 506
William James: The Moral Equivalent of War	p. 514
World Hunger	p. 523
Garrett Hardin: Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor	p. 526
William Murdoch and Allen Oaten: Population and Food: Metaphors and the Reality	p. 536
Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality	p. 543
Richard Watson: Reason and Morality in a World of Limited Food	p. 552
John Arthur: Famine Relief and the Ideal Moral Code	p. 559
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