Confronting Death

"Well organized, well argued, and well written... " --Choice

"It is a lively document, with vigorous arguments leading to opinions that are controversial but strongly held." --Joseph M. Foley, Medical Humanities Review

"... Momeyer's book has much to recommend it... The book would surely be a suitable focus for an undergraduate course in dealing with the philosophical issues involving death and our attitudes towards it." --David J. Mayo, Teaching Philosophy

"This book is valuable and important in bringing conceptual clarification to questions about dealing with death that are so often neglected or mishandled by social scientists and the counseling industry." --Ethics

An examination of the moral and philosophical issues at work in an individual's confrontation of death, not as a matter of psychological necessity or social conditioning, but as a function of reflection and the search for self-knowledge.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction and Overview

Part I: Death, Good, and Evil

Chapter I: Death Mystiques: Denial, Acceptance, Rebellion

Chapter II: Is Death an Evil?

Chapter III: If Immortality Were Possible, Would It Be Good?

Chapter IV: Fearing Death and Caring for the Dying

Chapter V: Is A Natural Death a Good Death?

Chapter VI: Good Dying

Part II: Choosing Death

Introduction to Part II

Chapter VII: Suicide: Choosing Self-Inflicted Death

Chapter VIII: The Right to Choose Death

Chapter IX: The Limits of Personal Autonomy: The Case of Donald/Dax Cowart

Chapter X: Choosing Death for Noncompetent Persons

Notes

Name Index

Subject Index