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Jonathan Glover

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Causing Death and Saving Lives: The Moral Problems of Abortion, Infanticide, Suicide, Euthanasia, Capital Punishment, War, and Other Life-or-Death Choices Paperback – June 28, 1990

by Jonathan Glover (Author)

57

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The moral problems of abortion, infanticide, suicide, euthanasia, capital punishment, war and other life-or-death choices.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

June 28, 1990
Dimensions

0.75 x 5 x 7.75 inches
ISBN-10

0140134794
ISBN-13

978-0140134797
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; New Ed edition (June 28, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140134794
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140134797
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.75 x 5 x 7.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,023,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,336 in Philosophy of Ethics & Morality

Customer Reviews:
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4.4 out of 5

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Razvan Viteazu

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2015

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Great!

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Chiranjeeb Buragohain

Philosophy Applied to Real Life

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2005

This book is concerned with practical ethics, a very old branch of philosophy with a long history all the way from the Greeks. For the Greeks, philosophy was not an academic affair ---politics and ethics dealt with real problems of the day. That trend withered as time went on. This book applies tools of philosophy to real life problems such as abortion, infanticide, war, and suicide. The most interesting aspect of the book is that it does not push any particular point of view. Instead it takes each problem and describes various attempts to deal with it. For example abortion: some people believe abortion is wrong because the foetus has life and life is sacred, others believe that the foetus's right can be overridden by the right for the mother to make a choice about her own life. Neither position is completely defensible logically and both have their slippery points. Glover takes each of these viewpoints and analyzes its pros and cons. It is up to the reader to understand these arguments and make a judgement about where they stand. This is the best book to understand controversial issues such as infanticide, capital punishment and abortion without getting caught up in false rhetoric. Once you read this book, you will see these issues differently; with less surety and more humility.

18 people found this helpful

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Eusy

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017

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Very nice and punctual

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2014

In Causing Deaths and Saving Lives Jonathan Glover offers a broadly utilitarian analysis of killing. It is, however, not purely utilitarian; Glover makes room for respecting the autonomy of those who wish to go on living even if we cannot determine what it is that makes their lives worth living (perhaps, though, this grounded in some kind of rule utilitarianism). Indeed, Glover thinks that the wrongness of killing (considered apart from its side-effects on others) is best explained by either the wrongness of overriding of another's autonomy or the wrongness of reducing the total amount of worthwhile life that would otherwise exist if no life-thwarting action were taken. While this classic volume is easy to read, non-technical, honest, and fair, the foundational assumptions seem to me to be flawed.

Consider his definition of death, which he defines as the irreversible loss of consciousness. This, he thinks avoids a problem posed by a thought experiment: imagine a man's heart stops and a doctor is poised to revive him fully expecting to get his heart going again, but the man's heir plunges a knife into his chest before the doctor can do anything. Does the heir violate a corpse or take the life of an innocent human being? Glover writes,

"If, to avoid complications, we assume that the man would otherwise have been revived, the question is one of the boundary between life and death. Making irreversible loss of consciousness the boundary has the advantage, over more traditional criteria, of making the heir's act one of murder." (p. 44).

This is a non sequitur. If by "revived" he means "regained consciousness," the boundary is between consciousness and unconsciousness, not life and death. Consider this: suppose the heir doesn't interfere and the doctor gets the man's heart going again, but unfortunately the man cannot regain consciousness. After the doctor determines that the man's consciousness has been irreversibly lost, the man's heir plunges the knife into the man's chest. Does he violate a corpse or kill a disabled and innocent human being? It seems clear that he doesn't violate a corpse, since we don't think of corpses being able to breath on their own like PVS patients do. Therefore he kills an innocent human being, which means the definition of death includes more than the irreversible loss of consciousness.

With respect to reproductive ethics, he thinks that the actions of killing an infant and failing to conceive a child via contraception are morally on par with another. If one is wrong, then so is the other; and if one is permissible, then so is the other. (Of course, the parity disappears when we start considering the side-effects of these actions on others). This strikes me as incredible for many reasons, but one will suffice. Failing to conceive is on par with infanticide only if we make two implausible assumptions: (1) reducing the total amount of worthwhile life is equivalent with failing to maximize the total amount of worthwhile life; (2) we are under an obligation to maximize the total amount of worthwhile life. A little reflection shows that there are problems with both of these. Since Glover denies any morally relevant difference between acts and omissions, the first assumption entails the following generalization: for any agent S, and any quantifiable property p, S reduces p just in case S fails to maximize p. Thus, if I fail to maximize the potential profits of a company, but produce profits for it nonetheless, I have reduced the company's profits. Conversely, I reduce the total amount of garbage in the world by failing to maximize the total amount of garbage I could otherwise produce. Neither of these statements make much sense of what we normally take the word 'reduce' to mean. To reduce something does not mean to fail to actualize the full potential of something; rather, it means to bring about less of something actual. As for the second assumption, it is hard to make sense of the harm done people who are prevented from existing. Non-existent entities do not have properties, so they cannot be harmed. Perhaps there is a creaturely essence awaiting actualization; but does the failure to actualize it harm it? I doubt it. Why, then, does Glover make these assumptions? As careful as he is to examine his assumptions throughout his interesting and provocative book, these are overlooked.

There is more confusion. Glover spends a lot of time arguing against the act-omission doctrine and the principle of double effect, and we are left with the impression that belief in these ideas is false. But he says, "moral beliefs are not in any straightforward way true or false" (pg. 111), so this noncognitivist turn seems to undercut his argument. Another example of undercutting occurs when he says it is absurd to argue for a moral position by claiming that its widespread rejection would lead to bad consequences (pg. 111), but then goes on to argue that the rejection of the ban on the use of nuclear weapons would produce terrible consequences while recognizing that conventional weapons can be used to cause more harm than nuclear weapons (e.g. he cites the now discredited belief that more people were killed in the conventional bombing of Dresden than in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima).

While Glover's book constitutes a great example the utilitarian challenge to traditional ethics, and is good for assigning to undergraduates to sample various positions, it is not very persuasive.

8 people found this helpful

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Mr. H. J. Simmons

Sane discussion of some momentous moral issues

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2009

This is a classic work of applied ethics. Jonathan Glover, one of the leaders in the field, casts a calm and rational light on some of the key moral issues concerning loss of life, such as abortion, capital punishemnt and warfare. His arguments are always balanced and fair, as well as penetrating. They are also free of unnecessary philosophical technicality. Strongly recommended.

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

LCITS

Full of ideas and insight

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2023

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I first read this book at uni. It is full of ideas and insight. Food for thought.

Varian Beauregard

Should be required reading in schools

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2007

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WARNING: This book will make you THINK!

I first read this as part of my A-level philosophy course, have recently re-read it and can confirm that it is still the best treatise on the morality of life and death issues (including abortion, war, euthanasia, infanticide and capital punishment).

This book is a breath of fresh air in moral debates which are usually emotively dominated by religion (and in some cases women's rights too).

It brings a hefty dose of utilitarianism tempered by humanism and a good examination of side-effects. The chapters determining the best overall general theory at the beginning may be a bit hard going to those not versed in philosophy but the style is very readable and it is worth persevering as it underpins the later arguments.

In conclusion, this book is essential for anyone who wants to properly consider any of these issues for any reason.

9 people found this helpful

joanneb

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2014

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an excellent book. plenty to think about in medical ethics/philosophy

Therion Tiberius Ware

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

A difficult read but well argued and definitely recommended for anyone interested in the debate.

I McIntosh

Simply written but not simplistic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2007

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I read this while at high school, and it was one factor that encouraged me to apply to the author's college, where I was fortunate enough to be taught moral philosophy by a wonderful man.

Very accessible entry point to complex ethical issues.

3 people found this helpful

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