1. IDENTITY: Preliminaries -- The soul -- Are we human organisms? -- The psychological account -- The embodied mind account -- 2. DEATH: Preliminaries -- The problem of comparison -- The metaphysical problem -- The problem of overdetermination -- Overall lifelong fortune -- The death of fetuses and infants -- A paradox -- 3. KILLING: The wrongness of killing and the badness of death -- Animals and severely cognitively impaired human beings -- Equality and respect -- 4. BEGINNINGS: Early abortion -- Late abortion -- Prenatal harm -- Is a later abortion worse? -- Time-relative interests and adaptation -- Potential -- The sanctity of human life -- Infanticide -- Abortion as the denial of life support -- Abortion and self-defense -- 5. ENDINGS: When do we die, or cease to exist? -- Euthanasia and assisted suicide -- The withering away of the self
Summary
Drawing on philosophical notions of personal identity and the immorality of killing, Jeff McMahan looks at various issues, including abortion, infanticide, the killing of animals, assisted suicide, and euthanasia