The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life"This book is a comprehensive study of the ethics of killing in cases in which the metaphysical or moral status of the individual killed is uncertain or controversial. Among the beings whose status is questionable or marginal in this way are human embryos and fetuses, neonates, animals, anencephalic infants, human beings with severe, congenital, cognitive impairments, and human beings who have become severely demented or irreversibly comatose." "In an attempt to understand the moral status of these beings, Jeff McMahan develops and defends distinctive accounts of the nature of personal identity, the evaluation of death, and the wrongness of killing. He contends that the morality of killing is not unitary; rather, the principles that determine the morality of killing in marginal cases are different from those that govern the killing of persons who are self-conscious and rational."--BOOK JACKET. |
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accept Account of Egoistic Alzheimer’s disease anencephalic animals argument badness of death become a person begin to exist believe biological brain death brainstem capacity for consciousness cause ceases to exist cerebral deficits cerebral hemispheres child chimpanzee claim cognitive comparable continuing to live dementia deprogramming developed fetus dicephalus earlier egoistic concern euthanasia evaluation example fetus’s function future harm human organism hylomorphic impersonal implies individual individual’s infanticide Innocent interest in continuing intrinsic potential intuitions involving loss matter maximum life span misfortune moral significance moral status Nonresponsible Threat Norm Account normal one’s Parfit Patient permissible person’s personal identity plausible possible potential to become pregnant woman Progeria prudential unity relations Psychological Account psychological capacities psychological connections psychological continuity rational relevant respect response sanctity seems self-defense sense severely retarded human soul species suffering suicide suppose things being equal Time-Relative Interest Account transplantation victim well-being worse worth living wrongness of killing zygote