The Ethics of Transplants
Why Careless Thought Costs Lives
Published on 22. March 2012
Book
Hardback
292 pages
978-0-19-957555-8 (ISBN)
Description
If you die through mistakes in moral reasoning, then you are as dead as if you die through mistakes made in medicine.
Organ transplantation saves lives yet thousands die every year on waiting lists through lack of organs. We are exhorted to donate; but is our individual reluctance the essence of the problem, or is it caused by deeper issues in the way public policy is discussed and formulated? Janet Radcliffe Richards casts a sharp critical eye on the moral arguments, forcing us to confront the logic and implications of our own position. A book for everyone who is up for intellectual challenge and is serious about moral reasoning in any context.
Organ transplantation saves lives yet thousands die every year on waiting lists through lack of organs. We are exhorted to donate; but is our individual reluctance the essence of the problem, or is it caused by deeper issues in the way public policy is discussed and formulated? Janet Radcliffe Richards casts a sharp critical eye on the moral arguments, forcing us to confront the logic and implications of our own position. A book for everyone who is up for intellectual challenge and is serious about moral reasoning in any context.
Reviews / Votes
It isn't easy for philosophers trained in the analytic tradition to combine argumentative rigour with an accessible style, but she succeeds brilliantly. * London Review of Books * Radcliffe Richards' book, without doubt, takes the debate [about organ transplants] forward. * John Forsythe, The Lancet * A marvellously timely and lucid book. Janet Radcliffe Richards's arguments have an irresistible power to make one think about one's own taken-for-granted assumptions and go to the hidden roots of one's prejudices. * Mary Warnock * This is applied ethics at its very best. Janet Radcliffe Richards's incisive, clear reasoning often yields surprising insights. This short book compels us to take a much more sceptical look at common assumptions concerning organ procurement, through selling or otherwise, from the living and the dead. * Peter Singer * A concentrated weight of thoughtfulness that takes little time and no effort to be enthralled by. * Druin Burch, Times Literary Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
None
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
577 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-957555-8 (9780199575558)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
10/2013
Oxford University Press
€34.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Janet Radcliffe Richards is currently Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. She is a well-established philosopher, writer, and public commentator, and author of The Sceptical Feminist (1982).
Content
1. Introduction ; 2. Procurement from the living ; 3. Methodological models ; 4. Procurement from the dead ; 5. Penumbral problems ; 6. Conclusion