Life, Death, and Subjectivity : Moral Sources in Bioethics

This book presents an exploration of concepts central to health care practice. In exploring such concepts as Subjectivity, Life, Personhood, and Death in deep philosophical terms, the book aims to draw out the ethical demands that arise when we encounter these phenomena, and also the moral resources of health care workers for meeting those demands.
The series Values in Bioethics makes available original philosophical books in all areas of bioethics, including medical and nursing ethics, health care ethics, research ethics, environmental ethics, and global bioethics.

Stan van Hooft is an Associate Professor of Philosophy on the Melbourne campus of Deakin University in Australia. He gained his Masters and Doctoral degrees from the University of Melbourne in the seventies and taught philosophy in a number of colleges before joining Deakin University. It was while contributing to the design of a new nursing curriculum in Victoria College in the eighties that he developed an interest in philosophical issues relating to health care. He is a member of the Australasian Bioethics Association and of the Australasian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics. He is the author of Caring: An Essay in the Philosophy of Ethics (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1995) and numerous journal articles on moral philosophy, bioethics, business ethics, and on the nature of health and disease. He is also a co-author of Facts and Values: An Introduction to Critical Thinking for Nurses (Sydney: MacLennan & Petty, 1995). He conducts Socratic Dialogues for doctors, nurses and a variety of other groups and has organized a monthly Philosophy Café in Melbourne. When not doing philosophy, Stan plays bass guitar in a jam band.