Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T12:39:19.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Secularism, Sanctity and the Wrongness of Killing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2008

Emily Jackson
Emily Jackson
Affiliation:
Law Department, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AEUK E-mail: e.jackson@lse.ac.uk
Get access

Abstract

This article challenges the idea that there could be a convincing secular version of the principle that human life is sacred, and explores the significance this has for the law. A number of secular justifications for the claim that there is something intrinsically, as opposed to instrumentally, valuable about human life have been mooted, most eloquently by Ronald Dworkin. While secular explanations for the sanctity of human life are undeniably attractive, this article will maintain that they do not have logic on their side. Having argued that the ‘sanctity principle’ makes sense only as an article of religious faith, the implications this has for the law are explored. In relation to end-of-life decision-making, the sanctity principle has been invoked to justify a sharp line between deliberately ending life and failing to prolong it. This article will conclude by arguing that a rejection of the sanctity principle might, in certain circumstances, cause us to focus instead on the extent to which death harms someone.

Keywords

Assisted DyingEuthanasiaHuman RightsPersonhoodSanctitySpeciesism
Type
Articles
Information
BioSocieties , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 125 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blackburn, S. (2001). Ethics. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Brierly, M. (2006). Public life and the place of the Church: Reflections to honour the Bishop of Oxford. Dartford: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Brock, D. (1992). Voluntary active euthanasia. Hastings Center Report, 22, 10–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coggan, J. (2007). Ignoring the moral and political shape of the law after Bland: The unintended side-effect of a sorry compromise. Legal Studies, 27, 110–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, C. (1986). The case for the use of animals in biomedical research. New England Journal of Medicine, 315(14), 865–870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooperman, A. (2002). Two Jewish groups back therapeutic cloning: Orthodox leaders break with right. Washington Post, 13 March, A4.Google Scholar
DeGrazia, D. (2002). Animal rights. Oxford: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeGrazia, D. (2003). Identity, killing and the boundaries of our existence. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 31, 413–442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dorff, E.N. (2002). Embryonic stem cell research: The Jewish perspective. United Synagogue Review, spring, 29–33.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. (1998). Euthanasia, morality and law. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 31, 1147.Google ScholarPubMed
Dworkin, R. (1992). Unenumerated rights: Whether and how Roe should be overruled. University of Chicago Law Review, 59, 381–432.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dworkin, R. (1993). Life’s dominion: An Argument about abortion and euthanasia. London:HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Cox, M. (1978). Animal liberation: A critique. Ethics, 88(2), 106–118.Google Scholar
Feldman, F. (1992). Confrontations with the reaper. Oxford:Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Finnis, J. (2004). Natural law: The classical tradition. In Coleman, J., Shapiro, S. and Himma, K.E. (Eds), The Oxford handbook of jurisprudence and philosophy of law, pp. 1–60. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Fletcher, J. (1973). Medicine and the nature of man. Science, Medicine and Man, 1, 93–102.Google ScholarPubMed
Frey, R.G. (1996). Medicine, animal experimentation, and the moral problem of unfortunate humans. Social Philosophy and Policy, 12, 181–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, L. (1994). Is there a modern legal culture? Ratio Juris, 7, 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ganzini, L., Dobscha, S.K., Heintz, R.T., & Press, N. (2003). Oregon physicians’ perceptions of patients who request assisted suicide and their families. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 6, 381–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gearty, C. (2006). Can human rights survive? Cambridge: Cambridge UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giesen, D. (1995). Dilemmas at life’s end: A comparative legal perspective. In Keown, J. (Ed.), Euthanasia examined. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.Google Scholar
Glover, J. (1977). Causing death and saving lives. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Goodall, J. (1991). Through a window: My thirty years with the chimpanzees of Gombe. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Gray, J. (2002). Straw dogs: Thoughts on humans and other animals. London: Granta.Google Scholar
Hope, T. (2004). Medical ethics: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, J. (1998). Xenografting: Ethical issues. Journal of Medical Ethics, 24, 18–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jackson, E. (2004).Whose death is it anyway? Euthanasia and the medical profession. Current Legal Problems, 57, 415–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamm, F.M. (2001). Ronald Dworkin on abortion and assisted suicide. Journal of Ethics, 5, 221–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, I. (1991). Treat me right. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keown, J. (2006). Restoring the sanctity of life and replacing the caricature: A reply to David Price. Legal Studies, 26, 109–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korsgaard, C. (1983). Two distinctions in goodness. Philosophical Review,92, 169–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lifton, R.J. (2000). The Nazi doctors: Medical killing and the psychology of genocide. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Locke, J. (1690). Essay on human understanding. Book II. London: Eliz Holt.Google Scholar
Mahoney, J. (2006). The challenge of human rights. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
McCall Smith, A. (1999). Euthanasia: The strengths of the middle ground. Medical Law Review, 7, 194–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGee, A. (2005). Finding a way through the ethical and legal maze: Withdrawal of medical treatment and euthanasia. Medical Law Review, 13(3), 357–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, J. (1996). Cognitive disability, misfortune and justice. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 13, 3–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahan, J. (2002). The ethics of killing: Problems at the margins of life. Oxford: Oxford UP.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Justice. (2007). Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice. London: Ministry of Justice.Google Scholar
Naffine, N. (unpublished). Law and the meaning of life. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2001). Animal rights: The need for a theoretical basis. Harvard Law Review, 114, 1506–1549.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2006). Frontiers of justice: Disability, nationality, species membership. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. (1984). Reasons and persons. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Patterson, F., & Linden, E. (1982). The education of Koko. London: Andre Deutsch.Google Scholar
Rachels, J. (1975). Active and passive euthanasia. New England Journal of Medicine, 292(2), 79–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachels, J. (1991). Created from animals: The moral implications of Darwinism. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Rorty, R. (1993). Human rights, rationality and sentimentality. In Shute, S., & Hurley, S. (Eds.), On human rights: The Oxford Amnesty lectures 1993, 111–134. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ryder, R. (2005). All beings that feel pain deserve human rights. The Guardian, 6 August.Google Scholar
Schweitzer, A. (1929). Civilization and ethics: The philosophy of civilization. London: A&C Black.Google Scholar
Singer, P. (1989). All animals are equal. In Regan, T. and Singer, P. (Eds), Animal rights and human obligations, 2nd edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Singer, P (1994). Rethinking life and death: The collapse of our traditional ethics. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Stith, R. (1991). The right to death. New York Review of Books, 38(6), 28 March. URL (accessed April 2008): www.nybooks.com/articles/3322Google Scholar
Tooley, M. (1972). Abortion and infanticide. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2, 29–65.Google Scholar
United Nations (1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. URL (accessed April 2008): www.unhchr.ch/udhr/Google Scholar
Warren, M.A. (1997). Moral status: Obligations to persons and other living things. Oxford: Oxford UP.Google Scholar
Warren, M.A. (1998 [1973]). On the moral and legal status of abortion. In Pence, G.E. (Ed.), Classic Works in Medical Ethics, 169–182. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wise, S. (2001). Rattling the cage. New York: Perseus Publishing.Google Scholar