Vital Distinctions, Mortal Questions: Debating Euthanasia & Health-Care Costs

Callahan notes new developments in the euthanasia debate, namely, inceasing public support in America for this practice and the added complication of a growing need to ration health-care resources. He examines these issues by answering two questions: does the long-standing Western tradition that rejects active euthanasia & assisted suicide have the intellectual resources to withstand the growing pressures to legitimate them? and, does Western tradition have the resources to cope with the allocation of health-care resources in a way that respects human life and dignity?