RTS-337A Biomedical Ethics (LoPresti)

In 'Death Talk', a passionate and wide-ranging enquiry into the euthanasia debate, Margaret Somerville argues that people who promote the legalization of euthanasia ignore, or deliberately confuse, the vast ethical, legal, and social differences between euthanasia and natural death.

This book addresses key historical, scientific, legal, and philosophical issues surrounding euthanasia and assisted suicide in the United States as well as in other countries and cultures.

Unafraid of difficult topics, Steffen and Cooley fully engage suicide, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, capital punishment, abortion, and war as areas of life where death poses moral challenges.

In The Sanctity of Human Life, Jewish theologian David Novak acknowledges that it is impossible not to take into account the theological view of human life, but the challenge is how to present the religious perspective to nonreligious people.

Professional codes such as the Hippocratic Oath claim moral authority for those in a particular field, yet according to medical ethicist Robert Veatch, these codes have little or nothing to do with how members of a guild should understand morality or make ethical decisions.