The Right to Life and the Value of Life

'The Right to Life and the Value of Life: Orientations in Law, Politics and Ethics is a cohesive and engaging set of essays that addresses many of the difficult issues that arise in conversations about human life and human death. Bringing together legal questions about the right to life, ethical or economic questions about the value of life, and aesthetic or philosophical questions about the good life or prosperous life, the contributors make clear that a reliable discussion of human life in the contemporary world demands a nuanced, multidisciplinary approach. This collection represents precisely such an approach - weaving together analyses of such seemingly disparate topics as war, detention, capital punishment, suicide, euthanasia, reproductive technologies, and the biosciences, while drawing on methodologies from political theory, literature, history, public policy, law, and sociology. In the process, The Right to Life and the Value of Life moves beyond existing frameworks of analysis to open up exciting and sometimes unexpected new spaces for inquiry and dialogue.' Ruth A. Miller, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA 'The Right to Life and the Value of Life: Orientations in Law, Politics and Ethics is a valiant effort bringing the questions of life and death under academic scrutiny. Traditionally, studies referring to the right to life and the value of life have been analyzed from isolated standpoints. This work weaves together science, political awareness and life, and its meritorious and ample endeavor may well entice and enlighten those questions mankind has asked itself repeatedly since the dawn of times.' Antonio Muñoz Aunion, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain