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Questions of Life and Death
Author(s) -
Charlton William
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
new blackfriars
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1741-2005
pISSN - 0028-4289
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-2005.2007.00202.x
Subject(s) - duty , right to die , dignity , sort , death with dignity , philosophy , epistemology , sociology , theology , law , political science , mathematics , arithmetic
Abstract What sort of right is the right to life? Does it make sense to speak of a right to die, or to be allowed to die, or to be helped to die, or to die with dignity? Are life and death straightforward alternatives? Are they possible objects of desire or aversion? Can they be given as gifts? If life is a gift, have recipients of it a duty to be grateful? Answers to these questions are obtained by philosophical analysis, chiefly of the concepts of life and death.