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The question of whether there might be a duty to die was first raised by Margaret Battin in 1987 in her ground-breaking essay, "Age Distribution and the Just Distribution of Health Care: Is There a Duty to-Die?" In 1997 the issue was reprised when two new articles appeared on the topic written by John Hardwig and the other by former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. Given the renewed interest in the topic, as well as its undeniable importance, Biomedical Ethics Re views sought to initiate an in-depth discussion of the issue by soliciting articles and issuing a general call for papers on the topic "Is There a Duty to Die?" The twelve articles in this volume represent the ultimate fruits of those initiatives. The first seven essays in this text are sympathetic to the claim that there is a duty to die. They argue either: (a) that some form of a duty to die exists, or (b) that arguments that might be offered against the existence of such a duty cannot be sustained. By way of contrast, the last five articles in the text are critical of duty-to-die claims: The authors of the first three of these five articles attempt to cast doubt on the existence of a duty to die, and the writers of the last two essays argue that if such a duty did exist, severe problems would arise when ever we attempted to implement it.
List of contents
Global Life Expectancies and the Duty to Die.- Is There a Duty to Die?.- Do We Have a Duty to Die?.- The Duty to Die: A Contractarian Approach.- Rule Utilitarianism and the Right to Die.- The Nature, Scope, and Implications of a Personal Moral Duty to Die.- Analyzing the Moral Duty to Die.- Duty to Die.- How Could There Be a Duty to Die?.- Do We Ever Have a Duty to Die?.- Grandma, the GNP, and the Duty to Die.- Dying for Others: Family, Altruism, and a Duty to Die.
Report
"Twelve essays comprise the volume, the first seven broadly supportive of some version of a duty to die, the last five critical of the notion. ...In short, this is a thought-provoking volume." - Ethics
