PBK - FEB 1989, 298 "READING" PAGES

Product Description: "Freedom of Information in a Post 9-11 World" is, to date, the first international scholarly examination of the impact of the terrorist attack on the United States in terms of how it may alter academic and corporate research, as well as the sharing of information generated by that research, by international colleagues in technological fields...read more

In postindustrial societies, people must consciously define their individuality through the choices they make. Recently, death has become yet another realm of personal choice, as well as an occasional arena for political debate, making a "good death" one in which we die in our "own way." Does culture matter in these decisions? "Final Days" represents a new perspective on end-of-life decision-making, arguing that culture does make a difference but not as a checklist of customs or as the source of a moral code. The final stage of life is as rooted as any other in political and economic constraints and social relationships. Policy, technology, and institutions - as well as biology - set limits on what is possible, defining the set of options from which people choose. Culture provides a vocabulary of words, metaphors, and images that can be drawn on to interpret experiences and create a sense of what it means to die well. Grounded in rich ethnographic data, the book offers a superb examination of how policy and meaning frame the choices Japanese make about how to die. As an essay in descriptive bioethics, it engages an extensive literature in the social sciences and bioethics to examine some of the answers people have constructed to end-of-life issues. Through interviews and case studies in hospitals and homes, Susan Orpett Long offers a window on the ways in which "ordinary" people respond to serious illness and the process of dying.

Book by Ahern, Jerry

Just what is a human being? Who counts? The answers to these questions are crucial when one is faced with the ethical issue of taking human life. In this affirmation of the intrinsic personal dignity and inviolability of every human individual, John Kavanaugh, S. J., denies that it can ever be moral to intentionally kill another.Today, in every corner of the world, men and women are willing to kill others in the name of "realism" and under the guise of race, quality of life, sex, property, nationalism, security, or religion. We justify these killings by either excluding certain humans from our definition of personhood or by invoking a greater good or more pressing value.Kavanaugh contends that neither alternative is acceptable. He formulates an ethics that opposes the intentional killing not only of medically "marginal" humans but also of depersonalized or criminalized enemies. Offering a philosophy of the person that embraces the undeveloped, the wounded, and the dying, he proposes ways to recover a personal ethical stance in a global society that increasingly devalues the individual.Kavanaugh discusses the work of a range of philosophers, artists, and activists from Richard Rorty and Soren Kierkegaard to Albert Camus and Woody Allen, from Mother Teresa to Jack Kevorkian. His approach is in stark contrast to that of writer Peter Singer and others who believe that not all human life has intrinsic moral worth. It will challenge philosophers, students of ethics, and anyone concerned about the depersonalization of contemporary life.

Discusses ethical issues involving terminal illness, euthanasia, suicide, brain damage, birth defects, abortion, and in vitro fertilization

Product Description: Part of a series on medical law and ethics given at King's College in London, it seeks to stimulate reflection and debate on the ethical and legal issues surrounding contemporary medical practice. Highly respected contributors from diverse disciplines and interests discuss medical law and ethic's issues in the forefront of recent controversy...read more

Product Description: PBK - FEB 1989, 298 "READING" PAGES

Product Description: According to the "sanctity-of-life" view, all human lives are equally valuable and inviolable, and it would be wrong to base life-and-death medical decisions on the quality of the patient's life. Examining the ideas and assumptions behind the sanctity-of-life view, Kuhse argues against the traditional view that allowing someone to die is morally different from killing, and shows that quality-of-life judgments are ubiquitous...read more

Product Description: This book examines issues related to euthanasia, such as the sanctity of life, ethical differences between human and animal life, the concept of personhood, personal rights in regard to making choices about death, and the definition of death.

Questions the practice of maintaining life at all costs and argues for a new code of medical ethics based on the patient's right to full knowledge