The ethical incoherence of the law with respect to the beginning and end of life
This lecture by Professor John Keown was delivered at the Bios Centre launch event on 18th December 2019.
Professor Keown addresses three common areas of incoherence in bioethics and law:
- Calibration of protection of human life according to arbitrary stages of development, eg: birth, viability, implantation
- Withholding of treatment from incompetent patients with the aim of shortening their lives
- Intentionally assisting suicidal refusals of treatment, or permitting physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill.
The recent publication Professor Keown mentions in the lecture:
Philosophical Foundations of Medical Law (Oxford University Press)