-- Contains extensive notes -- Offers a vigorous defense of body-soul dualism -- Considers the medical and ethical implications of the existence of the soul
Throughout Human History most people have believed that we are both physical and spiritual beings, that in fact the immaterial part of us can live on even when separated from our bodies by death. The rise of science, however, has called into question the existence of the soul. Concurrent with the demise of dualism has been the rise of advanced medical technologies that have brought to the fore difficult issues at both edges of life.
In this careful and thoughtful treatment J. P. Moreland and Scott B. Rae argue that the rise of these problems alongside the demise of Christian dualism is no coincidence. They therefore employ a theological realism to meet these pressing issues and to present a reasonable and biblically accurate depiction of human nature as it impinges on critical ethical concerns.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1: Metaphysical Reflections on Human Personhood
1. Establishing a Framework for Approaching Human Personhood
2. Human Persons as Substances or Property-Things
3. Human Persons in Naturalist & Complementarian Perspectives
4. Substance Dualism & the Human Person: Free Agency
5. Substance Dualism & the Human Person: Personal Identity6. Substance Dualism & the Body: Heredity,
DNA & the Soul
Part 2: Ethical Reflections on Human Personhood
7. The Moral & Metaphysical Status of the Unborn: Abortion & Fetal Research
8. Reproductive Techologies in Substance-Dualist Perspective
9. Genetic Technologies & Human Cloning
10. Euthanasia, Physician-Assisted Suicide & Care of Persons at the End of Life
