Essay Instructions: Please write 1500 words or so on one of the following topics. Oxford referencing?-? Include a bibliography containing all and only books, articles, web sources and other materials that you have read in the course of the research for your essay. If you have used a web source you should add the date on which you ccessed it. Do not refer to Wikipedia.
What the lecturer will looking for :
NEATNESS, PRESENTATION AND REFERENCING, SPELLING, GRAMMAR, AND EXPRESSION, ESSAY STRUCTURE; CLARITY OF ARGUMENT, APPROPRIATE USE OF QUOTATIONS, RELEVANCE OF ESSAY TO THE TOPIC, RANGE AND DEPTH OF RESEARCH, KNOWLEDGE OF UNIT CONTENT, EXPLICATION OF KEY IDEAS IN UNIT, CRITICAL EVALUATION OF KEY IDEAS, ORIGINAL IDEAS OR INTERPRETATIONS
Please note that in each of the topics below you are expected to make reference to, and to discuss, the text of the weekly study guide and at least two of the recommended readings that are indicated in the relevant topic in our study program.
1.Do you think that the view that death is a separation of the soul from the body captures the significance of death?
2.In what ways might religious faith shape our attitudes to death? Do you think that this is a good approach to death?
3.Do you think a medical definition of death would capture the significance of death?
4.How is a medical definition of death important for bioethics?
5.What’s so bad about being dead?
6.What difference does it make to the way we live our lives to know that we will die?
7.State and discuss Epicurus’ view on death.
8.Why is killing another human being usually regarded as morally wrong?
9.What is abortion and is it morally permissible?
10.Should abortion be de-criminalised?
11.What is euthanasia and is it morally permissible?
12.What is the difference between active or passive euthanasia and what is the moral significance of this distinction?
13.Should euthanasia be legalised?
The prescribed textbook is:
Raja Halwani, Philosophy of Love, Sex, and Marriage: An Introduction, New York and London:
Routledge, 2010.
Books relevant to Module 3
Books in the Library on death, its definition and meanings:
Philippe Ariés, Western Attitudes Toward Death: From the middle ages to the present, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974.
An interesting and accessible historical survey of beliefs and practices in the West towards death.
Christopher Belshaw, Annihilation: The Sense and Significance of Death, Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2009.
An interesting and accessible philosophical survey of ideas as to what our deaths might mean to us and what our rational attitudes should be.
Rosemary Dinnage, The Ruffian on the Stair: Reflections on Death, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1990.
A more difficult text. For dipping into only.
William Dudley (ed), Death and Dying, Opposing Viewpoints, San Diego, Greenhaven Press, 1992, Chapt 1: ‘How should death be determined?’
A discussion of the Harvard definition of death.
Fred Feldman, Confrontations with the Reaper: A philosophical study of the nature and value of death, New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.
A very detailed study.
William Joseph Gavin, Cuttin’ the Body Loose: Historical, biological, and personal approaches to death and dying, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1995.
Another interesting and accessible philosophical survey of ideas as to what our deaths might mean to us and what our rational attitudes should be.
Karen Grandstand Gervais, Redefining Death, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1986.
A very detailed discussion of the Harvard definition of death.
David Lamb, Death, Brain Death and Ethics, London, Croom Helm, 1985.
A very detailed discussion of the Harvard definition of death and its ethical implications.
Jeff Malpas and Robert C. Solomon (eds.), Death and Philosophy, London, Routledge 1998.
A collection of interesting essays on the existential meanings of death.
Todd May, Death, Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2009.
An interesting and accessible philosophical survey of ideas as to what our deaths might mean to us and what our rational attitudes should be.
Jay F. Rosenberg, Thinking clearly about Death, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1983.
An interesting and accessible philosophical survey of ideas as to what our deaths might mean to us and what our rational attitudes should be.
Geoffrey Scarre, Death, Stocksfield, UK: Acumen, 2007.
An interesting and accessible philosophical survey of ideas as to what our deaths might mean to us and what our rational attitudes should be.
Douglas N. Walton, Brain Death: Ethical Considerations, West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University Press, 1980.
A very detailed discussion of the Harvard definition of death and its ethical implications.
Books in the Library on Abortion
Marshall Cohen, Thomas Nagel, Thomas Scanlon (eds), The Rights and Wrongs of Abortion, Princeton NJ, Princeton University press, 1974.
A very thorough collection of essays.
Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1977, chapters 9, 10, & 11.
An accessible and thorough discussion.
James Rachels (ed), Moral Problems: A collection of philosophical essays 2nd edition, New York, Harper & Row, 1975, part 2.
An accessible discussion.
Jeff McMahan, The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002.
Chapter 4 is about abortion (and chapter 5 is about euthanasia) but this whole book is the most thorough treatment I know of the ethics of killing another human being.
Tom Regan (ed), Matters of Life and Death: New introductory essays in moral philosophy, New York, Random House, 1980, chapter 6.
An accessible discussion.
Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, chapter 6.
An accessible discussion.
Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983.
A very thorough treatment, if somewhat radical.
Stan van Hooft, Life, Death, and Subjectivity: Moral Sources in Bioethics, Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, 2004.
This is a thorough treatment of the background values involved in abortion and euthanasia and quite a solid read.
Books in the Library on Euthanasia
All of the books below are written in an accessible manner.
Dan W. Brock, Life and Death: Philosophical essays in biomedical ethics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, chapters 8 & 9.
Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1977, chapters 14 & 15.
Robert Gott and Richard Linden, No Easy Way Out: The euthanasia debate, Carlton, CIS Publishers, 1993.
Marvin Kohl, The Morality of Killing: Sanctity of life, abortion and euthanasia, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, Humanities Press, 1974.
J.P. Moreland and Norman L Geisler, The Life and Death Debate, New York, Greenwood Press, 1990, chapter 4.
James Rachels, The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality, Oxford, Oxford University Press 1986.
Tom Regan (ed), Matters of Life and Death: New introductory essays in moral philosophy, New York, Random House, 1980, chapter 2.
Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993, chapter 7.
Peter Singer, Rethinking Life and Death, Melbourne, Text Publishing Co., 1994.
Robert Young, Medically assisted death, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007.
There are faxes for this order.
