The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of LifeThis magisterial work is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of killing, where the moral status of the individual killed is uncertain. Drawing on philosophical notions of personal identity and the immorality of killing, McMahan looks carefully at a host of practical issues, including abortion, infanticide, the killing of animals, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. |
Contents
Prenatal Harm | |
Is a Later Abortion Worse? | |
TimeRelative Interests and Adaptation | |
Potential | |
Abortion as the Denial of LifeSupport | |
Abortion and SelfDefense | |
ENDINGS | |
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide | |
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Common terms and phrases
accept Account of Egoistic Alzheimer’s disease anencephalic animals argument badness of death basis for egoistic become a person begin to exist believe body brain death brainstem capacity for consciousness cause ceases to exist cerebral hemispheres cerebrum child chimpanzee claim cognitive commissurotomy comparable conception connectedness constitute continue to exist continuing to live deprogramming developed fetus dicephalus earlier egoistic concern Embodied Mind Account euthanasia example fetus’s function future hemispheres human organism hylomorphic implies individual individual’s infanticide interest in continuing intrinsic potential intuitions involving loss matter mental misfortune moral status Nonresponsible Threat Norm Account normal oneself Parfit Patient permissible person’s personal identity plausible possible potential to become Progeria prudential unity relations Psychological Account psychological capacities psychological connections psychological continuity rational relevant replication respect response reticular formation sanctity seems selfdefense sense sortal soul species suffering suppose things being equal TimeRelative Interest Account transplantation twins victim wellbeing worse worth living zygote