Human Lives

Human Lives: Critical Essays on Consequentialist Bioethics is a collection of original papers by philosophers from Britain, the USA and Australia. The aim of the book is to redress the imbalance in moral philosophy created by the dominance of consequentialism, the view that the criterion of morality is the maximization of good effects over bad, without regard for basic right or wrong. This approach has become the orthodoxy over the last few decades, particularly in the field of bioethics, where moral theory is applied to matters of life and death. The essays in Human Lives critically examine the assumptions and arguments of consequentialism, reviving in the process important concepts such as rights, justice, innocence, natural integrity, flourishing, the virtues, and the fundamental value of human life.

Inhalt
Notes on Contributors - Introduction - Consequentialism in Modern Moral Philosophy and in 'Modern Moral Philosophy'; C.Diamond - Is Anything Absolutely Wrong?; N.Denyer - Natural Integrity and Biotechnology; S.R.L.Clark - The Moral Uniqueness of the Human Animal; B.Scarlett - In Defence of Speciesism; T.Chappell - Young Human Beings: Metaphysics and Ethics; G.Gillett - Medicine, Virtues and Consequences; J.Cottingham - On Not Destroying the Health of One's Patients; L.Simmons - Intentions in Medical Ethics; J.L.A.Garcia - The Pre-eminence of Autonomy in Bioethics; J.E.Smith - Innocence and Consequentialism: Inconsistency, Equivocation and Contradiction in the Philosophy of Peter Singer; J.A.Laing - Voluntary Euthanasia and Justice; D.S.Oderberg - Index