ABSTRACT

This chapter shows that at least in certain specific situations some other kinds of criteria could be used, instead. It suggests differences between the two patients is that of willingness to live and willingness to die. Professional bioethicists can have two patients, only one of whom can be saved; they can both be living and rational persons, but it can be the case that one of them wants to live while the other one wants to die. One of the most important and most difficult issues in bio-medical ethics is that of killing people and letting them die. The chapter examines the status of human fetuses as patients, but not yet persons. Survival is the basic concern of every human being: everybody wants to continue living, to experience more, to see what the world will give tomorrow.