Tag: Death

Topics

Books

Problems in the Meaning of Death

– Science 170:1235-1236, 1970.
Excerpt: The meaning of death is an abiding human problem. It is perhaps the first such problem, and certainly one of the oldest. Confrontation with dead bodies has been credited by… More

Death as an Event: A Commentary on Robert Morison

– Science 173:698-702, 1971.
Abstract: 1) We have no need to abandon either the concept of death as an event or the efforts to set forth reasonable criteria for determining that a man has indeed died. 2) We need to… More

Refinements in Criteria for the Determination of Death

– A Report by the Task Force on Death and Dying of the Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences, Journal of the American Medical Association 221:48‑53, 1972.
Excerpt: The growing powers of medicine to combat disease and to prolong life have brought longer, healthier lives to many people. They have also brought new and difficult problems,… More

Ethical Dilemmas in the Care of the III

– Journal of the American Medical Association 244:1811-1816 (Part I: “What Is the Physician’s Service?”) and 244:1946-1949 (Part II: “What Is the Patient’s Good?”), 1980.
Abstract: Physicians must continue to rely on their own powers of discernment and prudent judgment and not look to external “expert” guidance or expect simple solutions in… More

Doctors Must Not Kill

– With W. Gaylin, E.D. Pellegrino, and M. Siegler, Journal of the American Medical Association 259:2139-40, April 8, 1988.

Neither for Love Nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– The Public Interest, Number 94:25-46, Winter 1989.
Excerpt: Is the profession of medicine ethically neutral? If so, whence shall we derive the moral norms or principles to govern its practices? If not, how are the norms of professional… More

Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life

– Commentary, March 1990.
Abstract: Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Chana Kass (1903-1989), my first and best teacher regarding human dignity. “Call no man happy until he is dead.” With these deliberately… More

‘I Will Give No Deadly Drug’: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– American College of Surgeons Bulletin 17:3, March 1992. Updated and reprinted in Kathleen Foley, M.D. and Herbert Hendin, M.D., ed., The Case Against Assisted Suicide (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 17-40. 

Is There a Right to Die?

– Hastings Center Report 23 (1):34-43, January/February, 1993. A slightly different version appears in Robert A. Licht, ed., Old Rights and New, Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1993, 75-95.

Dehumanization Triumphant

– First Things, August/September 1996.
Excerpt: Recent efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide and to establish a constitutional “right to die” are deeply troubling events, morally dubious in themselves, extremely… More

Courting Death: Assisted Suicide, Doctors, and the Law

– With Nelson Lund, Commentary, December 1996.
Abstract: That we die is certain. When and how we die is not. Because we want to live and not to die, we resort to medicine to delay the inevitable. Yet medicine’s increasing success in… More

L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?

– First Things, May 2001.
Excerpt: You don’t have to be Jewish to drink L’Chaim, to lift a glass “To Life.” Everyone in his right mind believes that life is good and that death is bad. But Jews have always… More

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2003).
Excerpt: Let me begin by offering a toast to biomedical science and biotechnology: May they live and be well. And may our children and grandchildren continue to reap their ever tastier… More

Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society

– The President's Council on Bioethics, Washington, DC, September 2005.
Excerpt: American society is aging—dramatically, rapidly, and largely well. More and more people are living healthily into their seventies and eighties, many well into their nineties.… More

Cast Me Not Off in Old Age

– Commentary (January 2006).
Excerpt: Death and dying are once again subjects of intense public attention. During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts was grilled about his views on removing… More

Living Old Interview with Leon Kass

– Edited transcript, Living Old, PBS, March 7, 2006.
Excerpt: Describe what’s happening with the new rising elderly population in the United States. One way to put it would be to say that we’re on the threshold of the first-ever… More

The Right to Life and Human Dignity

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2007).
Excerpt: Issues of individual rights tend to stand at the very center of legal disputes and moral debates in the United States. This is no accident, for “rights talk” is as American as… More

Cancer and Mortality: Making Time Count

– Rebecca Dresser, ed., Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 179-194.
Excerpt: All human beings are mortal, and nearly all of us know it. But for most of us, through much of our lives, this knowledge remains largely below the level of consciousness. The… More

Leon Kass on Why Not Immortality?

– TV Ontario, September 21, 2012.
Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses the philosophical question: Why not… More

Essays

Problems in the Meaning of Death

– Science 170:1235-1236, 1970.
Excerpt: The meaning of death is an abiding human problem. It is perhaps the first such problem, and certainly one of the oldest. Confrontation with dead bodies has been credited by… More

Death as an Event: A Commentary on Robert Morison

– Science 173:698-702, 1971.
Abstract: 1) We have no need to abandon either the concept of death as an event or the efforts to set forth reasonable criteria for determining that a man has indeed died. 2) We need to… More

Refinements in Criteria for the Determination of Death

– A Report by the Task Force on Death and Dying of the Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences, Journal of the American Medical Association 221:48‑53, 1972.
Excerpt: The growing powers of medicine to combat disease and to prolong life have brought longer, healthier lives to many people. They have also brought new and difficult problems,… More

Ethical Dilemmas in the Care of the III

– Journal of the American Medical Association 244:1811-1816 (Part I: “What Is the Physician’s Service?”) and 244:1946-1949 (Part II: “What Is the Patient’s Good?”), 1980.
Abstract: Physicians must continue to rely on their own powers of discernment and prudent judgment and not look to external “expert” guidance or expect simple solutions in… More

Doctors Must Not Kill

– With W. Gaylin, E.D. Pellegrino, and M. Siegler, Journal of the American Medical Association 259:2139-40, April 8, 1988.

Neither for Love Nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– The Public Interest, Number 94:25-46, Winter 1989.
Excerpt: Is the profession of medicine ethically neutral? If so, whence shall we derive the moral norms or principles to govern its practices? If not, how are the norms of professional… More

Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life

– Commentary, March 1990.
Abstract: Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Chana Kass (1903-1989), my first and best teacher regarding human dignity. “Call no man happy until he is dead.” With these deliberately… More

‘I Will Give No Deadly Drug’: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– American College of Surgeons Bulletin 17:3, March 1992. Updated and reprinted in Kathleen Foley, M.D. and Herbert Hendin, M.D., ed., The Case Against Assisted Suicide (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 17-40. 

Is There a Right to Die?

– Hastings Center Report 23 (1):34-43, January/February, 1993. A slightly different version appears in Robert A. Licht, ed., Old Rights and New, Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1993, 75-95.

Dehumanization Triumphant

– First Things, August/September 1996.
Excerpt: Recent efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide and to establish a constitutional “right to die” are deeply troubling events, morally dubious in themselves, extremely… More

Courting Death: Assisted Suicide, Doctors, and the Law

– With Nelson Lund, Commentary, December 1996.
Abstract: That we die is certain. When and how we die is not. Because we want to live and not to die, we resort to medicine to delay the inevitable. Yet medicine’s increasing success in… More

L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?

– First Things, May 2001.
Excerpt: You don’t have to be Jewish to drink L’Chaim, to lift a glass “To Life.” Everyone in his right mind believes that life is good and that death is bad. But Jews have always… More

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2003).
Excerpt: Let me begin by offering a toast to biomedical science and biotechnology: May they live and be well. And may our children and grandchildren continue to reap their ever tastier… More

Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society

– The President's Council on Bioethics, Washington, DC, September 2005.
Excerpt: American society is aging—dramatically, rapidly, and largely well. More and more people are living healthily into their seventies and eighties, many well into their nineties.… More

Cast Me Not Off in Old Age

– Commentary (January 2006).
Excerpt: Death and dying are once again subjects of intense public attention. During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts was grilled about his views on removing… More

Living Old Interview with Leon Kass

– Edited transcript, Living Old, PBS, March 7, 2006.
Excerpt: Describe what’s happening with the new rising elderly population in the United States. One way to put it would be to say that we’re on the threshold of the first-ever… More

The Right to Life and Human Dignity

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2007).
Excerpt: Issues of individual rights tend to stand at the very center of legal disputes and moral debates in the United States. This is no accident, for “rights talk” is as American as… More

Cancer and Mortality: Making Time Count

– Rebecca Dresser, ed., Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 179-194.
Excerpt: All human beings are mortal, and nearly all of us know it. But for most of us, through much of our lives, this knowledge remains largely below the level of consciousness. The… More

Leon Kass on Why Not Immortality?

– TV Ontario, September 21, 2012.
Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses the philosophical question: Why not… More

Commentary

Problems in the Meaning of Death

– Science 170:1235-1236, 1970.
Excerpt: The meaning of death is an abiding human problem. It is perhaps the first such problem, and certainly one of the oldest. Confrontation with dead bodies has been credited by… More

Death as an Event: A Commentary on Robert Morison

– Science 173:698-702, 1971.
Abstract: 1) We have no need to abandon either the concept of death as an event or the efforts to set forth reasonable criteria for determining that a man has indeed died. 2) We need to… More

Refinements in Criteria for the Determination of Death

– A Report by the Task Force on Death and Dying of the Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences, Journal of the American Medical Association 221:48‑53, 1972.
Excerpt: The growing powers of medicine to combat disease and to prolong life have brought longer, healthier lives to many people. They have also brought new and difficult problems,… More

Ethical Dilemmas in the Care of the III

– Journal of the American Medical Association 244:1811-1816 (Part I: “What Is the Physician’s Service?”) and 244:1946-1949 (Part II: “What Is the Patient’s Good?”), 1980.
Abstract: Physicians must continue to rely on their own powers of discernment and prudent judgment and not look to external “expert” guidance or expect simple solutions in… More

Doctors Must Not Kill

– With W. Gaylin, E.D. Pellegrino, and M. Siegler, Journal of the American Medical Association 259:2139-40, April 8, 1988.

Neither for Love Nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– The Public Interest, Number 94:25-46, Winter 1989.
Excerpt: Is the profession of medicine ethically neutral? If so, whence shall we derive the moral norms or principles to govern its practices? If not, how are the norms of professional… More

Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life

– Commentary, March 1990.
Abstract: Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Chana Kass (1903-1989), my first and best teacher regarding human dignity. “Call no man happy until he is dead.” With these deliberately… More

‘I Will Give No Deadly Drug’: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– American College of Surgeons Bulletin 17:3, March 1992. Updated and reprinted in Kathleen Foley, M.D. and Herbert Hendin, M.D., ed., The Case Against Assisted Suicide (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 17-40. 

Is There a Right to Die?

– Hastings Center Report 23 (1):34-43, January/February, 1993. A slightly different version appears in Robert A. Licht, ed., Old Rights and New, Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1993, 75-95.

Dehumanization Triumphant

– First Things, August/September 1996.
Excerpt: Recent efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide and to establish a constitutional “right to die” are deeply troubling events, morally dubious in themselves, extremely… More

Courting Death: Assisted Suicide, Doctors, and the Law

– With Nelson Lund, Commentary, December 1996.
Abstract: That we die is certain. When and how we die is not. Because we want to live and not to die, we resort to medicine to delay the inevitable. Yet medicine’s increasing success in… More

L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?

– First Things, May 2001.
Excerpt: You don’t have to be Jewish to drink L’Chaim, to lift a glass “To Life.” Everyone in his right mind believes that life is good and that death is bad. But Jews have always… More

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2003).
Excerpt: Let me begin by offering a toast to biomedical science and biotechnology: May they live and be well. And may our children and grandchildren continue to reap their ever tastier… More

Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society

– The President's Council on Bioethics, Washington, DC, September 2005.
Excerpt: American society is aging—dramatically, rapidly, and largely well. More and more people are living healthily into their seventies and eighties, many well into their nineties.… More

Cast Me Not Off in Old Age

– Commentary (January 2006).
Excerpt: Death and dying are once again subjects of intense public attention. During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts was grilled about his views on removing… More

Living Old Interview with Leon Kass

– Edited transcript, Living Old, PBS, March 7, 2006.
Excerpt: Describe what’s happening with the new rising elderly population in the United States. One way to put it would be to say that we’re on the threshold of the first-ever… More

The Right to Life and Human Dignity

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2007).
Excerpt: Issues of individual rights tend to stand at the very center of legal disputes and moral debates in the United States. This is no accident, for “rights talk” is as American as… More

Cancer and Mortality: Making Time Count

– Rebecca Dresser, ed., Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 179-194.
Excerpt: All human beings are mortal, and nearly all of us know it. But for most of us, through much of our lives, this knowledge remains largely below the level of consciousness. The… More

Leon Kass on Why Not Immortality?

– TV Ontario, September 21, 2012.
Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses the philosophical question: Why not… More

Multimedia

Problems in the Meaning of Death

– Science 170:1235-1236, 1970.
Excerpt: The meaning of death is an abiding human problem. It is perhaps the first such problem, and certainly one of the oldest. Confrontation with dead bodies has been credited by… More

Death as an Event: A Commentary on Robert Morison

– Science 173:698-702, 1971.
Abstract: 1) We have no need to abandon either the concept of death as an event or the efforts to set forth reasonable criteria for determining that a man has indeed died. 2) We need to… More

Refinements in Criteria for the Determination of Death

– A Report by the Task Force on Death and Dying of the Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences, Journal of the American Medical Association 221:48‑53, 1972.
Excerpt: The growing powers of medicine to combat disease and to prolong life have brought longer, healthier lives to many people. They have also brought new and difficult problems,… More

Ethical Dilemmas in the Care of the III

– Journal of the American Medical Association 244:1811-1816 (Part I: “What Is the Physician’s Service?”) and 244:1946-1949 (Part II: “What Is the Patient’s Good?”), 1980.
Abstract: Physicians must continue to rely on their own powers of discernment and prudent judgment and not look to external “expert” guidance or expect simple solutions in… More

Doctors Must Not Kill

– With W. Gaylin, E.D. Pellegrino, and M. Siegler, Journal of the American Medical Association 259:2139-40, April 8, 1988.

Neither for Love Nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– The Public Interest, Number 94:25-46, Winter 1989.
Excerpt: Is the profession of medicine ethically neutral? If so, whence shall we derive the moral norms or principles to govern its practices? If not, how are the norms of professional… More

Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life

– Commentary, March 1990.
Abstract: Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Chana Kass (1903-1989), my first and best teacher regarding human dignity. “Call no man happy until he is dead.” With these deliberately… More

‘I Will Give No Deadly Drug’: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– American College of Surgeons Bulletin 17:3, March 1992. Updated and reprinted in Kathleen Foley, M.D. and Herbert Hendin, M.D., ed., The Case Against Assisted Suicide (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 17-40. 

Is There a Right to Die?

– Hastings Center Report 23 (1):34-43, January/February, 1993. A slightly different version appears in Robert A. Licht, ed., Old Rights and New, Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1993, 75-95.

Dehumanization Triumphant

– First Things, August/September 1996.
Excerpt: Recent efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide and to establish a constitutional “right to die” are deeply troubling events, morally dubious in themselves, extremely… More

Courting Death: Assisted Suicide, Doctors, and the Law

– With Nelson Lund, Commentary, December 1996.
Abstract: That we die is certain. When and how we die is not. Because we want to live and not to die, we resort to medicine to delay the inevitable. Yet medicine’s increasing success in… More

L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?

– First Things, May 2001.
Excerpt: You don’t have to be Jewish to drink L’Chaim, to lift a glass “To Life.” Everyone in his right mind believes that life is good and that death is bad. But Jews have always… More

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2003).
Excerpt: Let me begin by offering a toast to biomedical science and biotechnology: May they live and be well. And may our children and grandchildren continue to reap their ever tastier… More

Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society

– The President's Council on Bioethics, Washington, DC, September 2005.
Excerpt: American society is aging—dramatically, rapidly, and largely well. More and more people are living healthily into their seventies and eighties, many well into their nineties.… More

Cast Me Not Off in Old Age

– Commentary (January 2006).
Excerpt: Death and dying are once again subjects of intense public attention. During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts was grilled about his views on removing… More

Living Old Interview with Leon Kass

– Edited transcript, Living Old, PBS, March 7, 2006.
Excerpt: Describe what’s happening with the new rising elderly population in the United States. One way to put it would be to say that we’re on the threshold of the first-ever… More

The Right to Life and Human Dignity

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2007).
Excerpt: Issues of individual rights tend to stand at the very center of legal disputes and moral debates in the United States. This is no accident, for “rights talk” is as American as… More

Cancer and Mortality: Making Time Count

– Rebecca Dresser, ed., Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 179-194.
Excerpt: All human beings are mortal, and nearly all of us know it. But for most of us, through much of our lives, this knowledge remains largely below the level of consciousness. The… More

Leon Kass on Why Not Immortality?

– TV Ontario, September 21, 2012.
Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses the philosophical question: Why not… More

Teaching

Problems in the Meaning of Death

– Science 170:1235-1236, 1970.
Excerpt: The meaning of death is an abiding human problem. It is perhaps the first such problem, and certainly one of the oldest. Confrontation with dead bodies has been credited by… More

Death as an Event: A Commentary on Robert Morison

– Science 173:698-702, 1971.
Abstract: 1) We have no need to abandon either the concept of death as an event or the efforts to set forth reasonable criteria for determining that a man has indeed died. 2) We need to… More

Refinements in Criteria for the Determination of Death

– A Report by the Task Force on Death and Dying of the Institute of Society, Ethics, and the Life Sciences, Journal of the American Medical Association 221:48‑53, 1972.
Excerpt: The growing powers of medicine to combat disease and to prolong life have brought longer, healthier lives to many people. They have also brought new and difficult problems,… More

Ethical Dilemmas in the Care of the III

– Journal of the American Medical Association 244:1811-1816 (Part I: “What Is the Physician’s Service?”) and 244:1946-1949 (Part II: “What Is the Patient’s Good?”), 1980.
Abstract: Physicians must continue to rely on their own powers of discernment and prudent judgment and not look to external “expert” guidance or expect simple solutions in… More

Doctors Must Not Kill

– With W. Gaylin, E.D. Pellegrino, and M. Siegler, Journal of the American Medical Association 259:2139-40, April 8, 1988.

Neither for Love Nor Money: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– The Public Interest, Number 94:25-46, Winter 1989.
Excerpt: Is the profession of medicine ethically neutral? If so, whence shall we derive the moral norms or principles to govern its practices? If not, how are the norms of professional… More

Death with Dignity and the Sanctity of Life

– Commentary, March 1990.
Abstract: Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Chana Kass (1903-1989), my first and best teacher regarding human dignity. “Call no man happy until he is dead.” With these deliberately… More

‘I Will Give No Deadly Drug’: Why Doctors Must Not Kill

– American College of Surgeons Bulletin 17:3, March 1992. Updated and reprinted in Kathleen Foley, M.D. and Herbert Hendin, M.D., ed., The Case Against Assisted Suicide (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 17-40. 

Is There a Right to Die?

– Hastings Center Report 23 (1):34-43, January/February, 1993. A slightly different version appears in Robert A. Licht, ed., Old Rights and New, Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1993, 75-95.

Dehumanization Triumphant

– First Things, August/September 1996.
Excerpt: Recent efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide and to establish a constitutional “right to die” are deeply troubling events, morally dubious in themselves, extremely… More

Courting Death: Assisted Suicide, Doctors, and the Law

– With Nelson Lund, Commentary, December 1996.
Abstract: That we die is certain. When and how we die is not. Because we want to live and not to die, we resort to medicine to delay the inevitable. Yet medicine’s increasing success in… More

L’Chaim and Its Limits: Why Not Immortality?

– First Things, May 2001.
Excerpt: You don’t have to be Jewish to drink L’Chaim, to lift a glass “To Life.” Everyone in his right mind believes that life is good and that death is bad. But Jews have always… More

Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2003).
Excerpt: Let me begin by offering a toast to biomedical science and biotechnology: May they live and be well. And may our children and grandchildren continue to reap their ever tastier… More

Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in Our Aging Society

– The President's Council on Bioethics, Washington, DC, September 2005.
Excerpt: American society is aging—dramatically, rapidly, and largely well. More and more people are living healthily into their seventies and eighties, many well into their nineties.… More

Cast Me Not Off in Old Age

– Commentary (January 2006).
Excerpt: Death and dying are once again subjects of intense public attention. During his confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts was grilled about his views on removing… More

Living Old Interview with Leon Kass

– Edited transcript, Living Old, PBS, March 7, 2006.
Excerpt: Describe what’s happening with the new rising elderly population in the United States. One way to put it would be to say that we’re on the threshold of the first-ever… More

The Right to Life and Human Dignity

– The New Atlantis (Spring 2007).
Excerpt: Issues of individual rights tend to stand at the very center of legal disputes and moral debates in the United States. This is no accident, for “rights talk” is as American as… More

Cancer and Mortality: Making Time Count

– Rebecca Dresser, ed., Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 179-194.
Excerpt: All human beings are mortal, and nearly all of us know it. But for most of us, through much of our lives, this knowledge remains largely below the level of consciousness. The… More

Leon Kass on Why Not Immortality?

– TV Ontario, September 21, 2012.
Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics, examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses the philosophical question: Why not… More