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Books

Life’s Dominion

Nicholas Everitt reviews Ronald Dworkin’s opinions on life and death.

That people have deep and irreconcilable disagreements about the morality of abortion, and to a lesser extent about euthanasia, seems undeniable. But in Life’s Dominion, Dworkin argues that the protagonists in the debate have misunderstood their own positions, and are in fact in fundamental agreement. He argues that if we try to understand the dispute in the traditional way, the position of each side quickly reveals inconsistencies; but that if we understand it in his preferred way, these inconsistencies drop away. The differences which remain between the two sides can be seen as differences in emphasis or in application of shared fundamental values, and not the expression of radically divergent moralities. How can these claims be defended?

Suppose we take the traditional conservative claim that abortion is wrong because it violates the right to life of the foetus, a right which it has in just the same way that all human beings have a right to life.

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