Abstract

Beginning Lives is both an Open University text book and an original contribution to applied ethics. Although the book is primarily about the morality of abortion, it contains sections on embryonic research and surrogacy, and appendices on methods of overcoming infertility and on the Warnock Report. In the introduction Dr Hursthouse sets herself two tasks which she believes any text book in applied ethics should perform. The first is to subject the standard literature to critical appraisal, the second is to argue for what one believes to be true about one's subject matter. Dr Hursthouse's criticism of the literature is trenchant, her contribution to truth a refreshing and original addition to virtue theory.