The law of life and death [electronic resource] / Elizabeth Price Foley.
Foley, Elizabeth Price.
2011
KF3827.D4 F65 2011eb
Available Online

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Title The law of life and death [electronic resource] / Elizabeth Price Foley.
Author Foley, Elizabeth Price.
ISBN 9780674060906 electronic book
9780674051041 hardcover
0674051041 hardcover
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (304 p.)
Call Number KF3827.D4 F65 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 344.7304/19
Summary 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.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-296) and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Law of life and death.
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Record Appears in Online Resources > Ebooks
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Statutory and common law life
Constitutional life
Cardiopulmonary death
Brain death
Constitutional death
Not dead yet
Unbeing dead isn't being alive.

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