Last updated on:
11/1/2011 |
Author: ProCon.org
James Rachels, PhD Biography
- Title:
- Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Position:
- Pro to the question "Should Euthanasia or Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legal?"
- Reasoning:
-
“The process of being ‘allowed to die’ can be relatively slow and painful, whereas being given a lethal injection is relatively quick and painless.”
“Active and Passive Euthanasia,” The New England Journal of Medicine, 1975
- Theoretical Expertise Ranking:
-
Experts
Individuals with MDs, JDs, PhDs, or equivalent advanced degrees in fields relevant to end-of-life issues. Also top-level government officials (such as foreign leaders, US presidents, Founding Fathers, Supreme Court Justices, members of legislative bodies, cabinet members, military leaders, etc.) with positions relevant to end-of-life. - Involvement and Affiliations:
-
- Former Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Dr. Rachels’ book, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, has sold more copies than any other ethics text in America, according to Gregory Pence, a fellow University of Alabama at Birmingham philosopher who studied under Dr. Rachels
- Dr. Rachels’ 1975 article “Active and Passive Euthanasia” was the first article published by a moral philosopher in the New England Journal of Medicine and today is still one of the most-reprinted articles in ethics
- Education:
-
- PhD, Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1967
- BA, Mercer University, 1962
- Other:
-
- Passed away, Sep. 2003
- Quoted in:
