The politics of death

pp. 102-114

in: Robert Grant, The politics of sex and other essays, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Abstract

If life has no value, then we might as well be dead. Some deaths suggest that we might even be better off dead. So death may not be the worst we have to fear. But suppose it is death that robs life of value in the first place? Or suppose the contrary, that life is precious only because the supply of it is not unlimited? Such questions are unanswerable until we have some idea of what we mean by "life", "death" and "value".