Reflections on Life, Death, and the Constitution

by George Anastaplo

Overview

The role of law in government has been increasingly scrutinized as courts struggle with controversial topics such as assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment, and torture. Reflections on Life, Death, and the Constitution explores such issues by using classical standards of morality as a starting point for understanding them. Drawing on works of literature and philosophy, and on U.S. Supreme Court decisions, George Anastaplo examines the intimate relationship between human nature and constitutional law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813192307
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/17/2009
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

George Anastaplo is professor of law at Loyola School of Law and lecturer in liberal arts at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous books, including Reflections on Constitutional Law and Reflections on Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Part 1

1 On Understanding the Others 3

2 Life and Not-Life in Thucydides' Funeral Oration 12

3 Death and Resurrection in Euripides' Bacchae 17

4 Resurrection and Death in Everyman 25

5 John Milton and the Limits of the Garden of Eden 31

6 Human Mortality and the Declaration of Independence 40

7 Time and the Constitution 46

8 Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Modern Project 52

9 Public Health and Private Consciences 58

10 The Flag Salute Cases (1940, 1943) 65

11 Conscientious Objectors and Military Conscription 74

12 Obliteration Bombing, Civilian Casualties, and the Laws of War 82

13 Do All Somehow Aim at the Good? 91

Part 2

1 Shakespeare's Hamlet and the Elusiveness of the Good 99

2 Unconventional Religious Duties and the Good Life 104

3 Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and the Prevention of Conception 115

4 Roe v. Wade (1973) and the Law of Abortion 122

5 Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) and the Persistence of the Abortion Issue 129

6 Capital Punishment and the United States Supreme Court 138

7 Capital Punishment Reconsidered 147

8 Nancy Cruzan and "The Right to Die" 156

9 Washington v. Glucksberg (1997) and Assisted Suicide 165

10 The Legislation of Morality and the Problem of Pain 172

11 Evolution and the Law 180

12 Life and Death in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 193

13 The Unseemly Fearfulness of Our Time 199

Appendixes

A The Declaration of Independence (1776) 205

B The United States Constitution (1787) 209

C The Amendments to the United States Constitution (1791-1992) 221

D Pericles, The Funeral Address (431 B.C.E.) 231

E On Death and Dying: Ancient, Christian, and Modern 238

I Aristotle: A FineDeath?

II John Mason Neale: Ye Need Not Fear the Grave?

III William Shakespeare: Does Conscience Make Cowards of Us All?

F Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death (1775) 242

G Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address (1863) 249

H George Anastaplo, On the Ultron and the Foundations of Things (1974) 250

I Life, Death, and the Systematic Perversions of Law (2000) 251

J Cases and Other Materials Drawn on 279

Index 285

About the Author 299

Editorial Reviews

"Anastaplo has that rare ability to demonstrate the strong connection between the great themes of political philosophy and the American constitutionthis book is lucid and thoroughly accessible to the educated reader." —Kenneth L. Deutsch, professor of political science and international relations, Geneseo University

From the Publisher