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
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:
  1. Is There a Moral Difference between Passive and Active Euthanasia?