Applied Ethics A Non-Consequentialist Approach [Paperback]

Applied Ethics focuses the central concepts of traditional morality - rights, justice, the good, virtue, and the fundamental value of human life - on a number of pressing contemporary problems, including abortion, euthanasia, animals, capital punishment, and war.Preface and Acknowledgements.

Part I: Abortion:.

1. The Problem of Abortion Today.

2. The Basic Argument and Some Responses.

3. Sentience: A Bad Argument Against Abortion.

4. A Return to the Basic Argument.

Objection from Brain Activity.

Objection from Sorites Paradoxes.

Objection from Begging the Question.

Objection from Sperm and Egg.

Objection from Fission and Totipotency.

Objection from Cloning and Parthenogenesis.

5. A Feminist Argument for Abortion.

6. The Foetus, the Person and the Person.

7. Abortion, the Law and the Public Good - a Concluding Note.

'I Personally Disapprove of Abortion But Would Not Impose my Opinion on Other People.'.

'It is Not the Business of the Law to Interfere with Such a Difficult Decision.'.

The 'Backstreet' Objection.

8. Conclusion.

Part II: Euthanasia:.

9. Introduction.

10. Varieties of Euthanasia.

11. Voluntary Euthanasia and Autonomy.

12. Non-Voluntary Euthanasia and 'Quality of Life'.

13. Active and Passive Euthanasia.

14. Ordinary and Extraordinary Means.

15. Euthanasia, Death and 'Brain Death'.

16. Euthanasia and Nazism.

Part III: Animals:.

17. The Problem.