Preview
  • What It Means to Be Human

  • The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics
  • By: O. Carter Snead
  • Narrated by: Asa Siegel
  • Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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What It Means to Be Human

By: O. Carter Snead
Narrated by: Asa Siegel
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Publisher's summary

The natural limits of the human body make us vulnerable and therefore dependent, throughout our lives, on others. Yet American law and policy disregard these stubborn facts, with statutes and judicial decisions that presume people to be autonomous, defined by their capacity to choose. As legal scholar O. Carter Snead points out, this individualistic ideology captures important truths about human freedom, but it also means that we have no obligations to each other unless we actively, voluntarily embrace them.

What It Means to Be Human makes the case for a new paradigm, one that better represents the gifts and challenges of being human. Inspired by the insights of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor, Snead proposes a vision of human identity and flourishing that supports those who are profoundly vulnerable and dependent-children, the disabled, and the elderly. To show how such a vision would affect law and policy, he addresses three complex issues in bioethics: abortion, assisted reproductive technology, and end-of-life decisions. He concludes that, if the law is built on premises that reflect the fully lived reality of life, it will provide support for the vulnerable, including the unborn, mothers, families, and those nearing the end of their lives.

©2020 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2022 Tantor
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Outstanding Primer on Bioethics

I very much enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in bioethics.

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Excellent book, dry reader

This is an excellent vision of a society in which we love and care for one another rather than the current focus on what we can get out of one another and our institutions.

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Screed

I was hoping by reading this, I would be given a deeper understanding of the ethical considerations of law related to abortion. However, I was surprised when the author departed from moral reasoning and made a leap to ideology. Upon discovering that the author is a professor at Notre Dame and a friend of Amy Coney Bryant, his use of embodiment to reify the relationship between embryo and uterus as “mother and child” made sense.

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Brilliant! Just reas!

Very insightful and learned so much! There is no easy answer for these complex human issues and we will continue to look for the right answer if there is one.

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