Life-prolonging killings and their relevance to ethics
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 2 (2):135-147 (1999)
Abstract
What makes killing morally wrong? And what makes killing morally worse than letting die? Standard answers to these two questions presuppose that killing someone involves shortening that person's life. Yet, as I argue in the first two sections of this article, this presupposition is false: Life-prolonging killings are conceivable. In the last two sections of the article, I explore the significance of the conceivability of such killings for various discussions of the two questions just mentioned. In particular, I show why the conceivability of life-prolonging killings renders Frances M. Kamm's attempt to provide an answer to the second question problematic.Author's Profile
Reprint years
2004
DOI
10.1023/a:1009991600029
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Citations of this work
Climate Change, War, and the Non-Identity Problem.Jeff McMahan - forthcoming - Journal of Moral Philosophy:1-28.
References found in this work
The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect.Philippa Foot - 1967 - Oxford Review 5:5-15.
The Cement of the Universe: A Study of Causation.John Leslie Mackie - 1974 - Oxford, England: Oxford, Clarendon Press.