Bücher der Reihe Oxford Ethics Series

Bioethical Prescriptions collects F.M. Kamm's articles on bioethics - revised for publication in book form - which have appeared over the last 25 years and which have made her among the most widely-respected philosophers working in this field.

This magisterial work is the first comprehensive study of the ethics of killing, where the moral status of the individual killed is uncertain. Drawing on philosophical notions of personal identity and the immorality of killing, McMahan looks carefully at a host of practical issues, including abortion, infanticide, the killing of animals, assisted suicide, and euthanasia.

Hurka gives an account of perfectionism, which holds that certain states of humans, such as knowledge, achievement and friendship are good apart from any pleasure they may bring, and that the morally right act is always the one that most promotes these states. Beginning with an analysis of its central concepts, Hurka tries to regain for perfectionism a central place in contemporary moral debate.

Basing itself on the premise that there are limits to the sacrifices that morality can demand on individuals, and also that certain types of acts are simply forbidden, this book argues that attempts to defend these sorts of moral limits are inadequate.

In choosing between moral alternatives - choosing between various forms of ethical action - we typically make calculations of the following kind: A is better than B; B is better than C; therefore A is better than C. These inferences use the principle of transitivity and are fundamental to many forms of practical and theoretical theorizing, not just in moral and ethical theory but in economics.