Morality, Mortality as a whole deals with certain aspects of ethical theory and with moral problems that arise primarily in contexts involving life‐and‐death decisions. The importance of the theoretical issues is not limited to their relevance to these decisions; however, they are, rather, issues at the heart of basic moral and political theory. This second volume on rights, duties, and status explores life and death as general issues in non‐consequentalist ethical theory. It comprises three parts. Part I has five chapters discussing the question of the moral (in)equivalence of ... More

Morality, Mortality as a whole deals with certain aspects of ethical theory and with moral problems that arise primarily in contexts involving life‐and‐death decisions. The importance of the theoretical issues is not limited to their relevance to these decisions; however, they are, rather, issues at the heart of basic moral and political theory. This second volume on rights, duties, and status explores life and death as general issues in non‐consequentalist ethical theory. It comprises three parts. Part I has five chapters discussing the question of the moral (in)equivalence of killing and letting die, harming, and not aiding. Part I has two chapters and offers a discussion of the so‐called ‘Trolley Problem’ and some other closely related dilemmatic situations, for the purpose of developing a principled account of when harming some to save others is permissible and when it is impermissible. Part III has five chapters and is concerned with the further examination of the relation between restrictions on conduct and prerogatives not to make sacrifices, and how these topics relate to human rights, duties, and the existence of valuable entities and states of affairs. In addition, it is concerned with the power of agreements and of supererogatory conduct to override restrictions.