The question of whether there might be a duty to die was first raised by Margaret Battin in 1987 in her ground-breaking essay, "Age Distribution and the Just Distribution of Health Care: Is There a Duty to-Die?" In 1997 the issue was reprised when two new articles appeared on the topic written by John Hardwig and the other by former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. Given the renewed interest in the topic, as well as its undeniable importance, Biomedical Ethics Re views sought to initiate an in-depth discussion of the issue by soliciting articles and issuing a general call for papers on the topic "Is There a Duty to Die?" The twelve articles in this volume represent the ultimate fruits of those initiatives. The first seven essays in this text are sympathetic to the claim that there is a duty to die. They argue either: (a) that some form of a duty to die exists, or (b) that arguments that might be offered against the existence of such a duty cannot be sustained. By way of contrast, the last five articles in the text are critical of duty-to-die claims: The authors of the first three of these five articles attempt to cast doubt on the existence of a duty to die, and the writers of the last two essays argue that if such a duty did exist, severe problems would arise when ever we attempted to implement it.

Leseprobe

Global Life Expectancies and the Duty to Die Margaret P. Battin Is There a Duty to Die? Jan Narveson Do We Have a Duty to Die? Marilyn Bennett The Duty to Die: A Contractarian Approach Robert E. Ehman Rule Utilitarianism and the Right to Die Michael Almeida The Nature, Scope, and Implications of a Personal Moral Duty to Die Paul T. Menzel Analyzing the Moral Duty to Die J. Angelo Corlett Duty to Die Rosemarie Tong How Could There Be a Duty to Die? David Drebushenko Do We Ever Have a Duty to Die? Susan Leigh Anderson Grandma, the GNP, and the Duty to Die Judith Lee Kissell Dying for Others: Family, Altruism, and a Duty to Die Ryan Spellecy