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Cover image of Defining the Beginning and End of Life
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Defining the Beginning and End of Life

Readings on Personal Identity and Bioethics

edited by John P. Lizza
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This collection of essays examines alternative theories about persons and personal identity at the beginning and end of life. The contributions seek to answer the important question, When does a person begin and cease to exist?

While the concept of personhood has figured prominently in contemporary debates over abortion and stem cell research, this is the first anthology to combine in a single volume both various theoretical perspectives and consideration of the more practical, bioethical issues. These essays are gathered from a rich tradition of philosophical and religious readings on the...

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This collection of essays examines alternative theories about persons and personal identity at the beginning and end of life. The contributions seek to answer the important question, When does a person begin and cease to exist?

While the concept of personhood has figured prominently in contemporary debates over abortion and stem cell research, this is the first anthology to combine in a single volume both various theoretical perspectives and consideration of the more practical, bioethical issues. These essays are gathered from a rich tradition of philosophical and religious readings on the subject, from René Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy and John Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding to more modern discussions on persons living with dementia and on the definition of death.

Organized chronologically, these works address three broad topics: theories of persons, persons at the beginning of life, and persons at the end of life. The first section offers differing views on the nature of persons that have influenced ontological and bioethical discussions of the subject. Essays in the next section track the debate over abortion and the moral status of embryos. The last section explores alternative definitions and determinations of death.

Defining the Beginning and End of Life is a useful resource for examining the connection between theoretical and bioethical considerations about persons. It will engage bioethicists and philosophers as well as inform policy and law regarding issues at the beginning and end of life.

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Book Details

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Available
Trim Size
6.125
x
9.25
Pages
600
ISBN
9780801893377
DOI
Illustration Description
1 line drawing
Subject
Table of Contents

Preface
List of Authors
Index
Part I: Theories of Persons
Chapter 1. Selections from the Phaedo
Chapter 2. Selections from Meditations on First Philosophy
Chapter 3. Selections from "Personal Identity: The

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Preface
List of Authors
Index
Part I: Theories of Persons
Chapter 1. Selections from the Phaedo
Chapter 2. Selections from Meditations on First Philosophy
Chapter 3. Selections from "Personal Identity: The Dualist Theory"
Chapter 4. Selections from Summa Theologiae
Chapter 5. Terra es animata: On Having a Life
Chapter 6. An Argument for Animalism
Chapter 7. Selection from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Chapter 8. The Unimportance of Identity
Chapter 9. Persons
Chapter 10. Real Selves: Persons as a Substantial Kind
Chapter 11. The Ontological Status of Persons
Chapter 12. Selections from Part III of Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist
Chapter 13. The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man
Chapter 14. Selection from Personal Being
Chapter 15. Selection from Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First
Chapter 16. Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
Part II: Persons at the Beginning of Life
Chapter 17. Jewish Perspectives on Abortion
Chapter 18. When Do People Begin?
Chapter 19. Thomism and the Beginning of Personhood
Chapter 20. Individuals, Humans, and Persons: The Issue of Moral Status
Chapter 21. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
Chapter 22. Ethics and Embryos
Chapter 23. When Does a Person Begin?
Part III: Persons at the End of Life
Chapter 24. The Biophilosophical Basis of Whole- Brain Death
Chapter 25. The Definition of Death in Jewish Law
Chapter 26. An Unfounded Diagnosis: Revisiting the Medical and Metaphysical Justifications of "Brain Death"
Chapter 27. St. Thomas on the Beginning and Ending of Human Life
Chapter 28. The Impending Collapse of the Whole- Brain Definition of Death
Chapter 29. Against the Stream: Comments on the Definition and Redefinition of Death
Chapter 30. Brain Death and Personal Identity
Chapter 31. On the Defi nition of Death
Chapter 32. Selection from Controversies in the Determination of Death: A White Paper
Index

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Author Bio
Featured Contributor

John P. Lizza, Ph.D.

John P. Lizza is a professor and the chair of the Department of Philosophy at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.
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