Abstract

This book is a sober, earnest, and careful exercise in moral theory that seeks to develop a coherent account of the morality of killing and letting die. The topics on which it focuses are the relation between killing and failing to save, the conditions in which the right to life is yielded or suspended, whether it is permissible to kill an innocent attacker in self-defense, the relevance of intention to the morality of killing, and whether the right not to be killed is absolute. Despite my admiration for Reeder’s moral sensitivity and seriousness of purpose, I remain unpersuaded that he has adequately defended the positions he advances. In what follows I will briefly sketch some of his views and explain my reservations about them.