A Life-Centered Approach to Bioethics

Approaches bioethics on the basis of a conception of life and what is needed for the affirmation of its quality in the most encompassing sense. Johnson applies this conception to discussions of controversial issues in bioethics including euthanasia, abortion, cloning and genetic engineering. His emphasis is not on providing definitive solutions to all bioethical issues but on developing an approach to coping with them that can also help us deal with new issues as they emerge. The foundation of this discussion is an extensive examination of the nature of the self and its good and of various approaches to ethics. His bioethic is integrally related to his well-known work on environmental philosophy. The book also applies these principles on an individual level, offering a user-friendly discussion of how to deal with ethical slippery slopes and how and where to draw the line when dealing with difficult questions of bioethics.

ISBN 0521766265   Pages 388 ISBN13 9780521766265 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 640 Publisher Cambridge University Press   Published in Cambridge Imprint Cambridge University Press   Height (mm) 228 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 152 Publication date 06 Dec 2010   Spine width (mm) 25 DEWEY 174.957   Academic level Postgraduate DEWEY edition DC22

1		Introduction		1
PART I		BACKGROUNDS
2		Some Background: Self and Reason		15
3		Some Background: Approaches to Ethics		39
4		Some Background: Our Good		65
5		Elusive Lines, Slippery Slopes, and Moral Principles		83
PART II		LIFE, DEATH, AND BIOETHICS
6		Being Alive		121
7		Being Healthy		139
8		Health and Virtue		166
9		Death and Life		188
10		Drawing Lines with Death		213
11		Double Effect: Euthanasia and Proportionality		223
12		Concerning Abortion		238
13		The Gene, Part I: The Mystique		263
14		The Gene, Part II: Manipulation		279
15		Ethics and Biomedical Research		319
16		Bioethics Seen in an Eastern Light		335
17		Toward a Wider View		351
		Bibliography		367
		Index		373

Advance praise: 'By conceptualizing life as a process rather than a substance, and by identifying selves as life-processes, Johnson provides us with an innovative approach to the perennial question of how we ought to live our lives. Our good is our health, and our health is an activity whose trajectory changes over the course of our lives. The effects of this sensible thesis ramify throughout a host of urgent contemporary moral issues. I strongly recommend Johnson's accessible work.' Mark H. Bernstein, Joyce and Edward E. Brewer Chair in Applied Ethics, Purdue University 'Lawrence Johnson's A Life-Centered Approach to Bioethics is a timely and engaging work, addressing challenging contemporary issues in bioethics, ranging from genetic manipulation to euthanasia and abortion. Johnson succeeds in providing a compelling text for students in bioethics courses, while also presenting provocative positions that will be of interest to professional philosophers and bioethicists. His distinctive biocentric approach to human well-being is a natural extension of his highly regarded work in environmental ethics, and should garner a wide audience.' Jason Kavall, Colgate University 'This is biocentric bioethics. The novelty in Johnson's approach is his provocative insight that those who affirm all life come to different perspectives and conclusions about human life than do those who start assuming that only human or sentient life is of moral concern. That deepens bioethics and results, surprisingly, in a more humane caring for persons. Read it to enrich both your life and your bioethics.' Holmes Rolston III, Colorado State University

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