Value of Life

First published in 1985. Medical ethics is a vitally important subject and currently a highly controversial one. Recent cases have highlighted both the intellectual and moral challenges posed by the dilemmas of modern medicine and their significance for us all. John Harris fives a fully up-to-date survey of the issues in this crucial field of applied ethics, including in vitro fertilisation and experimentation on human embryos. Introduction 1 Beings, human beings and persons 2 Above all do no harm 3 Must doctors help their patients? 4 Killing: A caring thing to do? 5 The value of life 6 The beginnings of life 7 Whose body is it anyway? 8 A woman’s right to choose 9 Sexual morality and the natural 10 Respect for persons I 11 Respect for persons II 12 Death is abolished