Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Sanctity of Life

   1. The Concept of Sanctity of Life and Its Use in Contemporary Bioethical Discussion

      • James F. Keenan

      Pages 1-18

   2. Sanctity of Life, Voluntary Euthanasia and the Dutch Experience: Some Implications for Public Policy

      • Helga Kuhse

      Pages 19-37

   3. Value of Life Vs. Sanctity of Life — Outlines of a Bioethics That does without the Concept of Menschenwürde

      • Wolfgang Lenzen

      Pages 39-55

   4. Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity at the Bedside

      • Stephen Wear

      Pages 57-71

3. Human Dignity

   1. Human Dignity: Philosophical Origin and Scientific Erosion of an Idea

      • Kurt Bayertz

      Pages 73-90

   2. The General Notion of Human Dignity and the Specific Arguments in Medical Ethics

      • Martin Hailer, Dietrich Ritschl

      Pages 91-106

   3. Ambiguities in the Concept of Menschenwürde

      • Dieter Birnbacher

      Pages 107-121

   4. Human Dignity and Genetic Tests

      • Thomas Petermann

      Pages 123-138

4. The Concept of a Person

   1. The Concept of a Person in Moral Philosophy

      • Ludger Honnefelder

      Pages 139-160

   2. Alterity and Judgment: Some Moral Implications of Hegel’s Concept of Life

      • Mary C. Rawlinson

      Pages 161-175

   3. Persons as “Self-Originating Sources of Value”

      • Anton Leist

      Pages 177-199

5. Problems of Critical Care

   1. Sanctity of Life and Menschenwürde: Can These Concepts Help Direct the Use of Resources in Critical Care?

      • H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr.

      Pages 201-219

   2. Not Sanctity or Dignity, But Justice and Autonomy: Key Moral Concepts in the Allocation of Critical Care

      • John C. Moskop

      Pages 221-228

   3. Sanctity of Life and the Neonatologist’s Dilemma

      • Volker Von Loewenich

      Pages 229-239

6. The Role of the State

   1. The Sanctity of Human Life: Secular Moral Authority, Biomedicine, and the Role of the State

      • Kevin WM. Wildes

      Pages 241-256

   2. On the Appeal for the Recognition of Human Dignity in Law and Morality

      • Martin Honecker

      Pages 257-273

7. Back Matter

   Pages 311-320

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`Sanctity of life' and `human dignity' are two bioethical concepts that play an important role in bioethical discussions. Despite their separate history and content, they have similar functions in these discussions. In many cases they are used to bring a difficult or controversial debate to an end. They serve as unquestionable cornerstones of morality, as rocks able to weather the storms of moral pluralism. This book provides the reader with analyses of these two concepts from different philosophical, professional and cultural points of view. Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity presents a comparative analysis of both concepts.

• Ethics
• Medical Ethics
• Moral
• autonomy
• bioethics
• concept

• University of Münster, Germany

  Kurt Bayertz

Policies and ethics