Killing, letting die and the bare difference argument

Bioethics

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 131-139

  Perrett, Roy W ^a  

^a MASSEY UNIVERSITY   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACTIVE EUTHANASIA; ANALYTICAL APPROACH; ARTICLE; BEHAVIOR; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; ETHICS; EUTHANASIA; HOMICIDE; HUMAN; MORALITY; MOTIVATION; PASSIVE EUTHANASIA; PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH; PHILOSOPHY;

ANALYTICAL APPROACH; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH;

ETHICS; EUTHANASIA; EUTHANASIA, ACTIVE; EUTHANASIA, PASSIVE; HOMICIDE; HUMANS; INTENTION; MORALS; MOTIVATION; PHILOSOPHY;

EID: 0030121998     PISSN: 02699702     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.1996.tb00112.x     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. See, inter alia, Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977; Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983; John Harris, The Value of Life, London: Routledge, 1985; James Rachels, The End of Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987; Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
2. See, inter alia, Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977; Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983; John Harris, The Value of Life, London: Routledge, 1985; James Rachels, The End of Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987; Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
3. See, inter alia, Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977; Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983; John Harris, The Value of Life, London: Routledge, 1985; James Rachels, The End of Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987; Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
4. See, inter alia, Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977; Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983; John Harris, The Value of Life, London: Routledge, 1985; James Rachels, The End of Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987; Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
5. See, inter alia, Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977; Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983; John Harris, The Value of Life, London: Routledge, 1985; James Rachels, The End of Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987; Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
6. See, inter alia, Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977; Michael Tooley, Abortion and Infanticide, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983; John Harris, The Value of Life, London: Routledge, 1985; James Rachels, The End of Life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986; Helga Kuhse, The Sanctity-of-Life Doctrine in Medicine: A Critique, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987; Peter Singer, Practical Ethics, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
7. Rachels, op.cit., p.111.
8. Rachels, op.cit.,p.113.
9. Winston Nesbitt, "Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die?", Journal of Applied Philosophy 12, 1995: 101-106. (The quote appears on p.101.)
10. Rachels, op.cit., p.112.
11. Nesbitt actually discusses the version of the two cases Rachels presented in an earlier paper, but there is no significant difference between those and the two cases presented in Rachels' more recent and much fuller discussion of these issues in Rachels, 1986. Tooley's examples are in Tooley, 1983, pp. 189-190.
12. Nesbitt, op.cit., p.103.
13. Nesbitt, op.cit., p.103.
14. Nesbitt, op.cit., p.103. I have changed Nesbitt's references to a "nephew" to a "cousin" throughout to make it consistent with the cases as described in the version from Rachels I cited earlier. (It is also a "cousin" in the original paper by Rachels that Nesbitt cites.)
15. Nesbitt, op.cit., p.105.
16. Nesbitt, op.cit., p.104.
17. This point is well made in Rachels, 1986, p.127.
18. I have benefited from Michael Tooley's comments on an earlier version of this paper.