Ending Life: Ethics and the Way We Die (Paperback)

~ Margaret Pabst Battin (Author) "Something is amiss with the debate over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide..." (more)
Key Phrases: oppositional collaboration, heightened moral repugnance, current explicit request, United States, Christian Science, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Battin is not only a good philosopher, she is a practical philosopher. She adopts a problem-oriented approach to bioethics, selecting a specific issue and always attempting to provide circumspect and reasoned solutions."--Journal of Medical Ethics

"Ending Life: Ethics and the Way We Die may provide the foundation and inspiration for various examinations and applications of end-of-life issues by psychologists. Those who are not familiar with the many issues associated with dying and death that have emerged in the last decade could find the book to be a treasure trove of ideas and insights."--PsycCRITIQUES

"Margaret Battin is an imaginative philosopher. She comes at issues at different angles and in different ways from most philosophers. She has a keen eye for points where philosophical argument and the public conversation have become polarized and unproductively stalled."--Social Theory and Practice

"Margaret Pabst Battin is one of the most intelligent writers on medical ethics."--Studies in Christian Ethics

"Not only does Battin successfully combine academic pieces with fiction, but she also shows a remarkable depth of knowledge of the historical, cultural, social, and at times legal influences which have shaped this debate. The reader gets the impression that this book is the result of serious and meticulous scholarly research on all aspects of these really difficult questions. Battin comes across as eloquently familiar with scientific developments, statistical studies and the realities involved in practicing the various solutions proposed."--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"She does what analytically trained philosophers do best, namely, provide illuminating analyses and clarifications of difficult concepts and advance logically rigorous arguments in support of her analyses and positions."--Medical Humanities Review

"She is surely one of the most erudite and articulate scholars pondering questions of euthanasia, suicide, and the withdrawal of medical treatment in the Western world."-- Arthur L. Caplan, Ethics

"There is more to be learnt from this book than from almost any of the countless others that seek to explore the issues that surround death and dying...Battin's words--both in this story and in the more 'academic' selections--have a grace and power all too rarely found in such collections. Battin is an expert guide in this exploration of the way we die and her insightful, original, and paradoxical life-affirming collection cannot be commended highly enough."--The Lancet

...a highly intelligent, wide-ranging book, recommended not only for philosophers working in bioethics but for everyone interested in issues of death and dying. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy


"Animated, inventive, and pleasurable reading."--Andrew Peach, The Review of Metaphysics
"Not only does Battin successfully combine academic pieces with fiction, but she also shows a remarkable depth of knowledge of the historical, cultural, social, and at times legal influences which have shaped this debate. The reader gets the impression that this book is the result of serious and meticulous scholarly research on all aspects of these really difficult questions. Battin comes across as eloquently familiar with scientific developments, statistical studies and the realities involved in practicing the various solutions proposed."--Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"There is more to be learnt from this book than from almost any of the countless others that seek to explore the issues that surround death and dying...Battin's words--both in this story and in the more 'academic' selections--have a grace and power all too rarely found in such collections. Battin is an expert guide in this exploration of the way we die and her insightful, original, and paradoxical life-affirming collection cannot be commended highly enough."--The Lancet
"Ending Life: Ethics and the Way We Die may provide the foundation and inspiration for various examinations and applications of end-of-life issues by psychologists. Those who are not familiar with the many issues associated with dying and death that have emerged in the last decade could find the book to be a treasure trove of ideas and insights."--PsycCRITIQUES
Praise for The Least Worst Death: Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life
"This book, which is engaging, erudite, and often funny, is a fascinating review of the history and implications of the debates--both medical and military--about suicide. Religious leaders, policymakers, health professionals, the sick, and the worried well will find these essays helpful in the effort to extract meaning and morals from modern life and its variety of deaths."--The New England Journal of Medicine
"Battin is not only a good philosopher, she is a practical philosopher. She adopts a problem-oriented approach to bioethics, selecting a specific issue and always attempting to provide circumspect and reasoned solutions."--Journal of Medical Ethics
"She is surely one of the most erudite and articulate scholars pondering questions of euthanasia, suicide, and the withdrawal of medical treatment in the Western world."-- Arthur L. Caplan, Ethics
"She does what analytically trained philosophers do best, namely, provide illuminating analyses and clarifications of difficult concepts and advance logically rigorous arguments in support of her analyses and positions."--Medical Humanities Review
"Margaret Pabst Battin is one of the most intelligent writers on medical ethics."--Studies in Christian Ethics
"Margaret Battin is an imaginative philosopher. She comes at issues at different angles and in different ways from most philosophers. She has a keen eye for points where philosophical argument and the public conversation have become polarized and unproductively stalled."--Social Theory and Practice


Praise for The Least Worst Death: Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life

Product Description

Margaret Pabst Battin has established a reputation as one of the top philosophers working in bioethics today. This work is a sequel to Battin's 1994 volume The Least Worst Death. The last ten years have seen fast-moving developments in the bioethical arena of end-of-life issues, from the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands, to the trial and conviction of Jack Kevorkian, to recent debates about NuTech methods of assistance in dying, suicide bombing, and extra-long life. Battin presents an entirely new collection of work, covering a wide range of topics but again centering on issues of withdrawing or withholding treatment, suicide, physician-assisted suicide, and euthanasia in both international and American contexts. As with the earlier volume, these new essays are theoretical but draw heavily on factual material; new in this volume are attention to suicide in old age as well as terminal illness, and the use of fictional techniques to illuminate particularly sensitive issues.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (May 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195140273
• ISBN-13: 978-0195140279
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
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• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,072,655 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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