This is a book I wish I had when I
first began studying ethics.  The editors have compiled a range of powerful
essays on some of the ongoing debates in contemporary ethics.  The chapters are
up-to-date and encompass recent developments in each area.  Indeed some of the
articles, such as the two on the death penalty, have significantly challenged
my personal views and called into question opinions I take for granted.

Issues such as abortion, affirmative action,
animals, capital punishment, cloning, euthanasia, immigration, pornography,
privacy and civil society, values in nature, and world hunger are the mainstay
of much ethics debate.  It is not just the specific topics but also the way the
book is put together that grabbed my interest.  Each of the topics is framed
through a pair of articles written specifically for this book.  One of the
articles takes a ‘for’ position and the other an ‘against’ position.  Each is
written in such a way that it seeks to convince the reader, through careful
rational argument, that the ethical point of view being defended is the best
perspective on the issue at hand.  Each chapter also provides some good
pointers to further reading material.

Having been persuaded, for
instance, that abortion is wrong, I turned to the next article that
equally persuaded me that abortion is morally permissible.  Should we provide
for corrective initiatives through affirmative action, or is this an
artificial way of privileging the few?  The campaign against animal
experimentation has a long history, but what moral value do we assign to animals,
should we judge them along the same moral lines as we devise for ourselves or
do we have greater moral responsibility due to our power over them?  We
commonly hear arguments against the death penalty, but Pojman argues
that there can be a strong defense of this form of punishment.  The debate on cloning
is probably the most contemporary of the debates, given current scientific
developments in this field.  Is euthanasia a form of suicide, is it a
private or a public act, can we distinguish when it is entirely voluntary?  We
take for granted freedom of movement, but does that give us the right to immigrate
wherever we wish?  For, were national boarders to be entirely open, even the
definition of the modern state could change.  If consenting adults wish to
produce and purchase pornography, should they be free to do so or is
there something inherently exploitative about this industry?  What is privacy,
and to what extent do I have a right to privacy (control over my own life)? 
While few would argue with the assertion that we have at least some responsibility
to protect nature, on what assumptions are these values based and can we
allow nature to change and develop even if that means some loss?  Do we have
responsibility towards others who hunger, or are their moral issues for
which we cannot or should not take responsibility?

It is not just the specific topics
but the way the book is put together that grabbed my interest.  The book
provides an introduction and overview to ethical debates in the areas listed. 
But it is more than just an introduction, it also provides an induction into
how ethics debates are constructed and conducted.  The point is that this is
not only a book about ethics, but a book that draws the reader into the
ethical debates themselves and through this challenges and provokes thought
about how these issues are developing in current thinking.  The articles are
up-to-date and take into account recent developments in each field.  There are
also some good pointers to further reading material.

The book is accessible, even to the
non-philosopher, so long as the reader takes the time to grapple with each
article and with the implications of what is being argued.  It is this sense of
becoming engaged and then convinced by a point of view, only to become equally
convinced by a differing or opposite point of view in the next chapter that
really inspired me.  This is not a book that offers easy answers, but one that
engages us to discovering that there is more to be thought about in each of the
areas explored, and that some of the ways we may resolve one ethical issue can
also have implications for other issues. 

This book would make a useful
textbook, resource or learning tool in ethics courses, both for its content as
well as for the structure of the arguments presented.  The editors should be
congratulated for having drawn together such a strong collection of material.

One criticism is that while the
book explores some of the ethics debates relevant to contemporary society,
there are numerous other ethical issues which could have been included:
computer ethics, professional ethics, journalism ethics, genetic issues (other
than cloning), military ethics, research using human subjects and so forth.  I
look forward to the next volume encompassing some of these discussions.

© 2006 Erich von Dietze

Erich von
Dietze, PhD, Chaplain, University Counseling Services, Curtin University,
Australia

Categories: Ethics, Philosophical