Life's Dominion: An Argument about Abortion, Euthanasia, and Individual Freedom, Ronald Dworkin

As a teacher of biomedical ethics, I have constantly sought a method to motivate my students to engage in meaningful moral debate on the controversial issues of abortion and euthanasia, without risking a shouting match (as happened on one occasion). The moral views are so personalized and polarized that silence often displaces discourse. Ronald Dworkin's masterful Life's Dominion offers an innovative and insightful way through this impasse by identifying moral commitments shared by persons with different conclusions. His argument begins with "conservative" premises and winds up with "liberal" conclusions. It is a philosophical and constitutional analysis of the meaning of life and death that draws on substantive religious values. In so doing, Dworkin suggests an approach that could alter the adversarial and even violent nature of our cultural debate about the ending of life towards a more dialogic and tolerant, but not indifferent, mode....