• Bioethical issues are perplexing, profound, and politically divisive. The Lanson Lectures in Bioethics Series was founded in the belief that philosophical elucidation can clarify the nature of these difficult issues, and can lead to their resolution. The present volume collects the first five previously unpublished lectures delivered by five preeminent moral philosophers between 2016 and 2022. Drawing a distinction between two concepts of dignity, Jonathan Glover brings the distinction to bear o…Read more
  •  9
    Ethics is frequently concerned with how to resolve clashes between competing claims from claimants of different kinds. The idea of moral status is crucial to understanding how (1) competing claims...
  •  5
    Rawlsian Political Liberalism, Public Reason, and Bioethics
    In Hon-Lam Li & Michael Campbell (eds.), Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 3-57. 2021.
    This chapter is divided into two parts. In the first part, I explain the foundational differences between A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism, despite the fact that Rawls maintains the Two Principles of Justice in both works. Moreover, I expound why, in view of the fact that reasonable people would subscribe to different comprehensive religious, philosophical, and moral doctrines, Rawls needs a new foundation for social stability in a constitutional liberal democracy. I explain the conn…Read more
  •  2
    Replies to Farrell & Tham, and to Fan
    In Hon-Lam Li & Michael Campbell (eds.), Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 135-180. 2021.
    In this chapter, Li argues against the Natural Law Theory approach expounded by Farrell and Tham in Chap. 2. Li also explains why Fan’s version of Confucianism in Chap. 3 is problematic. Li concludes that neither Farrell and Tham, nor Fan, have successfully argued that medical assistance in dying is impermissible.
  •  8
    Public Reason and Bioethics: Three Perspectives (edited book)
    Palgrave Macmillan. 2021.
    This book explores and elaborates three theories of public reason, drawn from Rawlsian political liberalism, natural law theory, and Confucianism. Drawing together academics from these separate approaches, the volume explores how the three theories critique each other, as well as how each one brings its theoretical arsenal to bear on the urgent contemporary debate of medical assistance in dying. The volume is structured in two parts: an exploration of the three traditions, followed by an in-dept…Read more
  •  9
    Public Reason as the Way for Dialogue
    American Journal of Bioethics 20 (12): 29-31. 2020.
    McCarthy, Homan, and Rozier (2020) state that the Christian bioethical categories, namely sin, human dignity, and the common good, can shed light on bioethical issues, whereas secular bioethics may...
  •  13
    Using a Public Health Ethics Framework to Unpick Discrimination in COVID-19 Responses
    with Roger Yat-Nork Chung, Alexandre Erler, and Derrick Au
    American Journal of Bioethics 20 (7): 114-116. 2020.
    Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 114-116.
  •  13
    Reopening Economies during the COIVD-19 Pandemic: Reasoning about Value Tradeoffs
    with Nancy S. Jecker and Roger Yat-Nork Chung
    American Journal of Bioethics 20 (7): 136-138. 2020.
    Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 136-138.
  •  66
    This paper examines whether physician-assisted suicide is morally permissible, and whether it should be legalised in the sense that those seeking or performing such procedure will be immune from prosecution. The issues of moral and legal permissibility1 are closely connected. One way to argue for the permissibility of PAS is grounded in the argument that a patient has the right to refuse life-saving equipment, or to have it withdrawn,2 and then to further argue that there is no relevant distinct…Read more
  •  19
    Contractualism and the Death Penalty
    Criminal Justice Ethics 36 (2): 152-182. 2017.
    It is a truism that there are erroneous convictions in criminal trials. Recent legal findings show that 3.3% to 5% of all convictions in capital rape-murder cases in the U.S. in the 1980s were erro...
  •  10
    New Essays in Applied Ethics: Animal Rights, Personhood, and the Ethics of Killing (edited book)
    with A. Yeung
    Palgrave McMillan. 2007.
    This collection of new essays aims to address some of the most perplexing issues arising from death and dying, as well as the moral status of persons and animals. Leading scholars, including Peter Singer and Gerald Dworkin, investigate diverse topics such as animal rights, vegetarianism, lethal injection, abortion and euthanasia
  •  128
    I offer some reasons for the theory that, compared with human beings, non-human animals have some but lesser intrinsic value. On the basis of this theory, I first argue that we do not know how to compare an animal's claim to be free from a more serious type of harm, and a human's claim to be free from some lesser type of harm. For we need to take account of these parties' intrinsic value, and their competing types of claim. Yet, there exists no known way for making such comparison, when a human'…Read more
  •  99
    I argue that the personhood of a fetus is analogous to the the heap. If this is correct, then the moral status or intrinsic value of a fetus would be supervenient upon the fetus's biological development. Yet to compare its claim vis-a-vis its mother's, we need to consider not only their moral status, but also the type of claim they each have. Thus we have to give weight to the two factors or variables of the mother's moral status and her claim to some lesser good . And then we have to consider t…Read more
  •  520
    Contractualism and Punishment
    Criminal Justice Ethics 34 (2): 177-209. 2015.
    T. M. Scanlon’s contractualism is a meta-ethical theory that explains moral motivation and also provides a conception of how to carry out moral deliberation. It supports non-consequentialism – the theory that both consequences and deontological considerations are morally significant in moral deliberation. Regarding the issue of punishment, non-consequentialism allows us to take account of the need for deterrence as well as principles of fairness, justice, and even desert. Moreover, Scanlonian co…Read more
  •  311
    On Happiness
    World Policy Journal 4-5. 2011.
    I argue that "quality of life" can be understood in three main ways: as purchasing power, together with social and political goods; as the subjective state of mind: happiness; happiness as related to the meaningfulness of one's profession or cause
  • A Marxian Theory of Law
    Dissertation, Cornell University. 1987.
    The fact that half of the world is ruled under the banner of Marxism and that there were no easily comprehensible and thorough studies of Marxist theory of law makes it worth investigating in some detail whether there is a Marxian theory of law, and, if so, what a Marxian theory of law would be like. Although Marx's and Engels' writings broadly relevant to law amount to some two hundred pages, it is clear that in these writings neither Marx nor Engels has put forward anything like a theory of la…Read more
  •  513
    Engelhardt on the Family
    International Journal of Chinese and Comparative Philosophy of Medicine (153-160). 2013.
    Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. offers erudite and compelling arguments for the view that all families should try to realize the traditional family. Although I tend to agree with him from my personal standpoint, I doubt that this view can be justified to those with whom we are in reasonable disagreement about the family. I make three critical points. First, though Engelhardt stops short of saying that the state should encourage people to form traditonal families, or discourage those who do not, some st…Read more