Is Death Ever Preferable to Life?

By: Ian Olver

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Hardcover | 1 November 2002

At a Glance

Hardcover
180 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.4 x 17.15 x 1.27

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This is an original contribution to the much debated area of the value that we should place on human life. With the euthanasia issue highlighted in the public arena this book argues for a non-absolutist highest value on life ethic and how that fits with society's current emphasis on individual autonomy. Not only are the arguments for and against placing a highest value on life explored but the way of arguing particularly the use of slippery slopes is discussed. By the use of everyday examples the impact of placing a high value on life is explored. A futuristic intensive care ward round illustrates the ethical and resource issues with which we would be challenged in adopting a highest value on life policy for medical decisions.
This book will be useful for students of ethics, nursing and medicine as well as those engaged in the public debate on euthanasia.

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Acknowledgement
In the Beginning	p. 1
Defining Death	p. 3
Regarding Life	p. 4
The Relative Value of Life and Individual Autonomy	p. 5
Slippery Slopes	p. 5
Rationing Health Resources	p. 6
The Definition of Death	p. 8
Biological Approach to Death	p. 10
Heart-lung Death	p. 10
Brain Death Criteria	p. 11
Lower Brain Death	p. 12
Upper Brain Death	p. 13
Anencephaly	p. 15
A Hierarchy of Organ Deaths	p. 16
Personhood	p. 18
Application of the Hierarchy of Orgain Deaths	p. 22
Respect for Dead Bodies	p. 25
Death Relative to Life	p. 28
The Value of Life	p. 29
The Inability to Create Life	p. 30
Comparing Life to Death	p. 32
Death as Foreclosure of Life's Options	p. 37
Acts and Omissions	p. 47
The Principle of Double Effect	p. 51
Ordinary and Extraordinary Means	p. 56
Defending Life on Top of the Hierarchy of Values	p. 58
Autonomy and Life or Death Decisions	p. 69
Ranking Autonomy and Quality of Life	p. 69
Whose Life is it Anyway?	p. 70
What is an Autonomous Decision?	p. 71
Voluntariness	p. 71
Intentionality	p. 72
Effective Deliberation	p. 72
Authenticity	p. 76
Moral Reflection	p. 79
Autonomy Requires Life	p. 80
Mill's Paradox in Defending Autonomy	p. 81
Occurrent and Dispositional Autonomy	p. 82
Autonomy as a Right	p. 83
HVL and Making an Autonomous Decision to Die	p. 86
Mill's Bridge Example	p. 87
Delaying a Decision	p. 87
Re-education or Coercion	p. 88
HVL vs An Autonomous Decision to Die	p. 91
Slippery Slopes and Life and Death	p. 95
Slippery Slope Arguments	p. 96
Sorites Slippery Slope Arguments	p. 96
Causal Slippery Slope Arguments	p. 97
Precedent Slippery Slope Arguments	p. 98
Combined Slippery Slope Arguments in Bioethical Debate	p. 99
The Case of Nazi Germany	p. 99
Slippery Slopes and the Definition of Death	p. 102
Slippery Slopes at the End of Life	p. 104
Respect for the Dead and Slippery Slopes	p. 105
Respecting the Wishes of the Dead	p. 106
Slippery Slopes and the Sanctity of Life Doctrine	p. 107
A Slippery Slope Between Passive and Active Euthanasia?	p. 109
Legalising Euthanasia and Intolerable Circumstances	p. 110
What Do We Mean By Bad Results?	p. 111
Euthanasia and the Precedent Slippery Slope	p. 113
Euthanasia and the Causal Slippery Slope	p. 114
Boundaries to Slippery Slopes	p. 115
Autonomy and Slippery Slopes	p. 118
Conclusions	p. 119
Limited Resources Limiting Life?	p. 120
Distribution of Resources	p. 121
Distributive Justice	p. 121
Libertarian Theories of Justice	p. 122
Utilitarian Theory and Distributive Justice	p. 124
QALY's	p. 126
The Oregon Plan	p. 128
Triage	p. 130
Egalitarian Theories and Resource Allocation	p. 131
Rawls's Theory of Justice	p. 132
HVL and Health Distribution Policies	p. 134
HVL and Distributive Justice for Health Care	p. 137
Health Resource Allocation as a Constraint on HVL
Should Clinicians Have a Dual Role?	p. 139
Conclusions	p. 141
Future Ethics	p. 143
Intensive Care Ward Round	p. 143
Case Studies and HVL Policy	p. 146
Is Death Ever Preferable to Life?	p. 150
Endnotes	p. 152
Index	p. 161
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Is Death Ever Preferable to Life?

At a Glance

Hardcover

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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