Modern life-prolonging technologies have sharpened some ancient dilemmas on the value of life.

... Modern life-prolonging technologies have sharpened some ancient dilemmas on the value of life. Our ability to sustain vital signs virtually as long as we wish pointedly raises the question whether we value life for its electrical efflorescence or for qualities that might be enjoyed by the person whose life is in jeopardy. In fact, it raises the question what the life is that we value. Is it biology or biography? Our legal norms and moral intuitions evolved before we had techniques to separate vital signs from interesting personality, before we could hold the dying in a living death and perpetuate a hopeless limbo of darkness and electricity. They developed during the long pre-technological age in medicine when the cessation of breath and pulse always coincided with the cessation of brain function and consciousness. But these no longer coincide. Nearly every hospital in the country has the equipment, and occasionally the

want to read more? →