An Ethical Right to Life

This work focuses on the issue of an ethical right to life. Its aim is to formulate a persuasive answer the question: What attribute can endow an entity with an ethical right to not have its existence terminated? In pursuing this objective, this work manifests three distinctive features. The first regards the delineation of the ethical enterprise. The second identifies self-consciousness as the attribute that endows an entity with an ethical right to life (this entity being the human entity, being that only the human entity possesses self-consciousness). Finally, the third feature lies in the kind of conclusion at which we can arrive, in the light of the foregoing two features, regarding the various issues implicating the termination of life such as abortion, euthanasia, suicide, assistant-suicide, and capital punishment. The issue of an ethical right to life is heavily politicized and divisive in Western societies. The reflections and analyses offered in An Ethical Right to Life contribute a much-needed clarification to the on-going discussion.

This work focuses on the issue of an ethical right to life. Its aim is to formulate a persuasive answer the question: What attribute can endow an entity with an ethical right to not have its existence terminated? The issue of an ethical right to life is heavily politicized and divisive in Western societies. The reflections and analyses offered in An Ethical Right to Life contribute a much-needed clarification to the on-going discussion.

Manfred H. Vogel is Professor of Religious Philosophy at Northwestern University.