Life and death decisions : the quest for morality and justice in human societies /
Ekland-Olson, Sheldon,1944-
New York ; London : Routledge,
2013.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents note continued: Violence Increases -- Taking Lives to Save Lives -- The Army of God -- Partial-Birth Abortion -- Protecting Health as Well as Life -- A Strange and Strained Argument -- The Political Landscape Shifts -- Legal Details -- Adapting to a Strange and Strained Decision -- Lives Worth Living, Protecting, and Supporting -- Regulations Emerge -- Nagging Uncertainties---Who Should Decide? -- When Doctors Say No -- Dealing With Futility and Uncertainty -- 3.The Boundaries Of Tolerable Suffering -- Troubling Cases in Troubled Times -- The Stages of Suffering -- Please Let Me Die -- When Life Becomes Vegetative -- Prolonged Death and the Public Good -- The Right-to-Die Movement Gains Momentum -- Public Opinion and Legislative Action -- Alleviating Suffering and Protecting Life: Who Decides? -- The Supreme Court Weighs In -- The Gift of Death -- Uncertainty, a Duty to Die, and Rationed Health Care -- Lives Less Worthy of Living? -- Uncertainty --
Contents note continued: A Suicide Machine and a Cookbook of Death -- A Calmer Voice -- A Foothold is Secured -- Unanimous Ambivalence -- Voters Decide (Again) and Are Challenged (Again) -- 4.Taking Life: Lynching And Capital Punishment -- Lynching and the Margins of Life -- Crystallizing Events on the Road to Reform -- Evolving Protections for Those on the Margins -- Another Crystallizing Event -- Stark Inhumanity Further Energizes a Movement -- A Sense of Injustice and Questioned Legitimacy -- A Campaign is Launched -- Efforts Intensify -- The Core Question for a Last-Ditch Effort -- Arbitrary and Capricious Procedures -- Procedures for Taking Life Are Clarified -- The Pendulum Swings -- Science, Technology, and Innocence -- A Messy and Meaningless System -- A Watershed Moratorium -- Mental Retardation and Age -- Shifting Standards -- EPILOGUE: SIX LESSONS LEARNED -- Lesson One The Power of Assessed Social Worth -- Lesson Two Change Comes Along a Jagged and Contentious Path --
Contents note continued: Lesson Three The Importance of Analogies, Metaphors, Images, and Stories -- Lesson Four Who Decides? -- Lesson Five Dilemmas Lead to Cyclical Change -- Lesson Six Tension Remains.
Life
Capital punishment
Social justice.
Human rights.