Life on the Line: Ethics, Aging, Ending Patients' Lives, and Allocating Vital Resources

by John F. Kilner

Overview

This is a print on demand book and is therefore non- returnable.

Ethicist John Kilner draws on biblical materials to develop a basic ethical approach for dealing with difficult end-of-life situations and the allocation of limited medical resources. Arguing that a biblically based medical ethics must be God-centered, reality-bounded, and love-impelled, Kilner grapples honestly with the personal and social dilemmas that arise in the face of death. Topics covered include euthanasia, suicide, quality of life, living wills, and the distribution of vital treatments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802806307
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/22/1992
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Director of the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity inBannockburn, Illinois.

Editorial Reviews

James F. Childress
—University of Virginia
"I enthusiastically commend John Kilner's Life on the Line. It offers a very careful and helpful interpretation of a Christian ethics as God-centered, reality-bounded, and love-impelled and then uses this framework to illuminate two major contemporary problems in health care — ending patients' lives and allocating vital resources. In this book Kilner makes a major contribution to Christian ethics, particularly in its application to health care."

Arthur J. Dyck
—Harvard Divinity School
"For anyone who wishes to learn what ethical guidance a Christian biblical perspective can offer when illness puts 'life on the line,' this book is an excellent place to begin. . . . The book should be widely read: what is has to say will nourish the individual reader and will offer valuable suggestions for public policy."

Robert Wennberg
—Westmont College
"Few contemporary issues are of greater importance than those addresses in this book — ending patients' lives and allocating scarce medical resources. To these tough issues John Kilner brings appropriate Christian sensitivities, a wealth of biblical knowledge, theological and ethical sophistication, common sense, and considerable practical knowledge from his own firsthand experience in the hospital setting. Professor Kilner is himself a special resource that the evangelical community, along with the larger Christian community, should liberally take advantage of."

From the Publisher