Status Updates From Life's Dominion

"Making someone die in a way that others approve, but he believes a horrifying contradiction of his life, is a devastating, odious form of tyranny" (217)

shirked - avoid or neglect (a duty or responsibility)
"This distressing truth which must not be shirked is that [discontinuing life support] is not in the best interests of Anthony Bland..." (pp. 208-209)

"It is a platitude that we live our whole lives in the shadow of death; it is also true that we die in the shadow of our lives" (pg 199)

Includes many rhetorical questions, regarding the constitutionality of abortion, what the constitutions defines as a person, and how the constitution and some specific clauses should be interpreted.

Dworkin discussed how we view the loss of life, and the different factors which affect how terrible we believe it is. He argued that the value a person held in their life, the value they had to others, their age, physical health, and their mental health all play a role in measuring the tragedy of their demise.

In the first chapter Dworkin discussed the issues surrounding abortion and euthanasia. He described different ways of approaching these controversies, and argued that the main problem isn't in when a life begins or ends, but in the intrinsic value it possesses. In chapter 2 he further examines this idea within the context of abortion and the Catholic church's involvement in the issue.

"...constructing the book as an extended argument rather than as a more discursive study" (Dworkin 28).

discursive- passing aimlessly from one subject to another

"[Abortion] chooses death before life in earnest has begun, [euthanasia] after it has ended."