Life Death And The Law

Are you alive? What makes you so sure? Most people believe this question has a clear answer—that some law defines our status as living (or not) for all purposes. But they are dead wrong. In this pioneering study, Elizabeth Price Foley examines the many, and surprisingly ambiguous, legal definitions of what counts as human life and death. Foley reveals that “not being dead” is not necessarily the same as being alive, in the eyes of the law. People, pre-viable fetuses, and post-viable fetuses have different sets of legal rights, which explains the law's seemingly inconsistent approach to stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, frozen embryos, in utero embryos, contraception, abortion, homicide, and wrongful death. In a detailed analysis that is sure to be controversial, Foley shows how the need for more organ transplants and the need to conserve health care resources are exerting steady pressure to expand the legal definition of death. As a result, death is being declared faster than ever before. The "right to die," Foley worries, may be morphing slowly into an obligation to die. Foley’s balanced, accessible chapters explore the most contentious legal issues of our time—including cryogenics, feticide, abortion, physician-assisted suicide, brain death, vegetative and minimally conscious states, informed consent, and advance directives—across constitutional, contract, tort, property, and criminal law. Ultimately, she suggests, the inconsistencies and ambiguities in U.S. laws governing life and death may be culturally, and perhaps even psychologically, necessary for an enormous and diverse country like ours.

Life in Death is the most comprehensive collection to date of work by artist Rebecca Louise Law. The book documents the evolution of Law's unique artistic practice, the use of flowers as preserved sculptural material. A journey through the earliest experiments, to her best known immersive installations, via a series of beautifully documented photographs. It also provides a unique insight into the life and influences of the artist, including an introduction written by Law. The title culminates with exclusive imagery of Life in Death, Law's forthcoming exhibition showcasing a sculptural installation at the heart of Kew's Shirley Sherwood Gallery, which pays homage to the expertise in preservation presented throughout Kew's collections and represents a symbol of natural durability which is central to Law's practice. Life in Death runs from 7 October 2017 - 11 March 2018 in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Regulating the End of Life: Death Rights is a collection of cutting-edge chapters on assisted dying and euthanasia, written by leading authors in the field. Providing an overview of current regulation on assisted dying and euthanasia, both in the UK and internationally, this book also addresses the associated debates on ethical, moral, and rights issues. It considers whether, just as there is a right to life, there should also be a right to death, especially in the context of unbearable human suffering. The unintended consequences of prohibitions on assisted dying and euthanasia are explored, and the argument put forward that knowing one can choose when and how one dies can be life-extending, rather than life-limiting. Key critiques from feminist and disability studies are addressed. The overarching theme of the collection is that death is an embodied right which we should be entitled to exercise, with appropriate safeguards, as and when we choose. Making a novel contribution to the debate on assisted dying, this interdisciplinary book will appeal to those with relevant interests in law, socio-legal studies, applied ethics, medical ethics, politics, philosophy, and sociology.

Orentlicher 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. The author then takes up the debate over forcing pregnant women to accept treatments to save their fetuses. He uses this issue to weigh the "avoidance of perverse incentives," an approach to translation that follows principles hesitantly for fear of generating unintended results. And third, Orentlicher considers the denial of life-sustaining treatment on grounds of medical futility in his evaluation of the "tragic choices" model, which hides difficult life-and-death choices in order to prevent paralyzing social conflict.

Particular controversial legal-moral problems are examined.

This collection of essays examines the relationship between pain, death, and the law and addresses the question of how the law constructs pain and death as jurisprudential facts. The empirical focus of these essays enables the reader to delve into both the history and the theoretical complexities of the pain-death-law relationship. The combination of the theoretical and the empirical broadens the contribution this volume will undoubtedly make to debates in which the right to live or die is the core issue at hand. This volume will be an important read for policy makers and legal practitioners and a valuable text for courses in law, the social sciences, and the humanities. Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College.

The death of man is an economy of the life of man. In this book the reader is made to realize that death is slight and has nothing in its nature to hurt any living soul.All the scares associated with death are as a result of man's instinctive fear of the unknown.All that the reader needs to know to be able to live above his unfounded fear of death are compressed in this book.Death is herein unmasked at last, that every living soul might live his life in peace since he is now aware, through this book, that he is ever out of reach of death, that death has no power over the living, but only over the dead.This is a must-read piece for whoever prices peace of mind far above all other things.