Matters of Life and Death: Making Moral Theory Work in Medical Ethics and the Law.

Orentlicher, David. Matters of Life and Death: Making Moral Theory Work in Medical Ethics and the Law. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Drawing on his extensive experience in both medicine and law, the author uses controversial life-and-death issues as case studies for evaluating three models for translating principle into practice. Physician-assisted suicide illustrates the application of "generally valid rules," a model that provides predictability and simplicity and, more importantly, avoids the personal biases that influence case-by-case judgments. He then takes up the debate over forcing women to accept treatments to save their fetuses. He uses this issue to weigh the "avoidance of...