Author Description

Issues Of Life And Death Such As Abortion, Assisted Suicide, Capital Punishment And Others Are Among The Most Contentious In Many Societies. Whose Rights Are Protected? How Do These Rights And Protections Change Over Time And Who Makes Those Decisions? Based On The Author' S Award-winning And Hugely Popular Undergraduate Course At The University Of Texas, This Book Explores These Questions And The Fundamentally Sociological Processes Which Underlie The Quest For Morality And Justice In Human Societies. The Author' S Goal Is Not To Advocate... Contents Note Continued: Violence Increases -- Taking Lives To Save Lives -- The Army Of God -- Partial-birth Abortion -- Protecting Health As Well As Life -- A Strange And Strained Argument -- The Political Landscape Shifts -- Legal Details -- Adapting To A Strange And Strained Decision -- Lives Worth Living, Protecting, And Supporting -- Regulations Emerge -- Nagging Uncertainties---who Should Decide? -- When Doctors Say No -- Dealing With Futility And Uncertainty -- 3.the Boundaries Of Tolerable Suffering -- Troubling Cases In Troubled Times -- The Stages Of Suffering -- Please Let Me Die -- When Life Becomes Vegetative -- Prolonged Death And The Public Good -- The Right-to-die Movement Gains Momentum -- Public Opinion And Legislative Action -- Alleviating Suffering And Protecting Life: Who Decides? -- The Supreme Court Weighs In -- The Gift Of Death -- Uncertainty, A Duty To Die, And Rationed Health Care -- Lives Less Worthy Of Living? -- Uncertainty -- Contents Note Continued: A Suicide Machine And A Cookbook Of Death -- A Calmer Voice -- A Foothold Is Secured -- Unanimous Ambivalence -- Voters Decide (again) And Are Challenged (again) -- 4.taking Life: Lynching And Capital Punishment -- Lynching And The Margins Of Life -- Crystallizing Events On The Road To Reform -- Evolving Protections For Those On The Margins -- Another Crystallizing Event -- Stark Inhumanity Further Energizes A Movement -- A Sense Of Injustice And Questioned Legitimacy -- A Campaign Is Launched -- Efforts Intensify -- The Core Question For A Last-ditch Effort -- Arbitrary And Capricious Procedures -- Procedures For Taking Life Are Clarified -- The Pendulum Swings -- Science, Technology, And Innocence -- A Messy And Meaningless System -- A Watershed Moratorium -- Mental Retardation And Age -- Shifting Standards -- Epilogue: Six Lessons Learned -- Lesson One The Power Of Assessed Social Worth -- Lesson Two Change Comes Along A Jagged And Contentious Path -- Contents Note Continued: Lesson Three The Importance Of Analogies, Metaphors, Images, And Stories -- Lesson Four Who Decides? -- Lesson Five Dilemmas Lead To Cyclical Change -- Lesson Six Tension Remains. Sheldon Ekland-olson. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.