Life and Death: A Reader in Moral Problems

This anthology examines 11 key issues dealing with the beginning and end of life, and presents a balanced set of 67 classic and contemporary readings on each of them. It is unique in its coverage of applied ethics, medical topics, and broad theoretical considerations of issues of life and death-the sanctity of life versus the quality of life, and the meaning of life and death. The section on Ethical Theory covers the classic theories as well as ethical relativism to orient students to the nature and importance of ethics. The section on the sanctity of life versus the quality of life examines a vital but often neglected issue in moral philosophy. Introductions and study questions accompany each major reading.

Louis Paul Pojman grew up in Cicero, Illinois in the 1940s and 50s. He attended Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, from which he received a MA and PhD in Religion. In 1969 he was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and in 1970 a Rockefeller Fellow at Hamburg University. He received his PhD in Philosophy from Oxford University in 1997. His first position was at the University of Notre Dame, after which he taught at the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Mississippi, where for three years he served as the Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. In 1995 he accepted an offer to become Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has recently been a Visiting Professor at Brigham Young University in Utah and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. Louis Pojman is the author or editor of over 30 books and 80 articles. He has won several research and teaching awards, including the Burlington Northern Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship (1988) and the Outstanding Scholar/Teacher in the Humanities at the University of Mississippi (1994). He and his wife are avid hikers, bikers, and environmentalists (life-time members of the Sierra Club). They have two children.