Sanctity of Life, A Sense of Life, and Good Endings

Abstract

Since the Terry Schiavo case the idea of sanctity of life has shown itself to be open to interpretations which seem too hard edged to be compatible with the kind of concern about human life that bioethics ought to be fostering. When we turn elsewhere for a concept that will do the work that is needed we find the phrase 'a sense of life' made famous by Martha Nussbaum. But what is meant by this? That it is linked to the sanctity of life seems inescapable but the link is problematic in a way that demands a closer inquiry, Nussbaum links it to a quasi-objective sense of a good life which raises issues of quality of life and not mere prolonging of life and yet seems to defuse the judgmental stance that is sometimes associated with the concept of quality of life. I settle on a reading in terms of subjectivity and the nature of the other (as encountered in the work of Levinas) such that an ethics of the subject as a being engaged with us in a distinctive way becomes the starting point of philosophical inquiry about human life and death. This then gives a sense in which the life of a human being is sacred but not in a way that favours its continuance in all circumstances but focuses our attention on the subjectivity at the centre of the life.