A Life-Centered Approach to Bioethics: Biocentric Ethics

by Lawrence E. Johnson

• ISBN13: 9780521154208
• ISBN10: 0521154200
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780511994043
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book approaches bioethics on the basis of a conception of life and what is needed for the affirmation of its quality in the most encompassing sense. Lawrence E. Johnson applies this conception to discussions of controversial issues in bioethics including euthanasia, abortion, cloning, and genetic engineering. His emphasis is not on providing definitive solutions to all bioethical issues but on developing an approach to coping with them that can also help us deal with new issues as they emerge. The foundation of this discussion is an extensive examination of the nature of the self and its good and of various approaches to ethics. His bioethic is integrally related to his well-known work on environmental philosophy. The book also applies these principles on an individual level, offering a user-friendly discussion of how to deal with ethical slippery slopes and how and where to draw the line when dealing with difficult questions of bioethics.

Author Biography

Lawrence E. Johnson is an Affiliate Research Fellow in the humanities at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He has also taught at West Virginia University and Flinders University. His articles have appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including International Logic Review, the Review of Metaphysics, Environmental Ethics, the Monash Bioethics Review, and the Journal of Natural History. He has also contributed to several literary journals.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Backgrounds
Some Background: Self and Reason	p. 15
Some Background: Approaches to Ethics	p. 39
Some Background: Our Good	p. 65
Elusive Lines, Slippery Slopes, and Moral Principles	p. 83
Life, Death, and Bioethics
Being Alive	p. 121
Being Healthy	p. 139
Health and Virtue	p. 166
Death and Life	p. 188
Drawing Lines with Death	p. 213
Double Effect: Euthanasia and Proportionality	p. 223
Concerning Abortion	p. 238
The Gene, Part I: The Mystique	p. 263
The Gene, Part II: Manipulation	p. 279
Ethics and Biomedical Research	p. 319
Bioethics Seen in an Eastern Light	p. 335
Toward a Wider View	p. 351
Bibliography	p. 367
Index	p. 373
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.