The Birth of Ethics: Phenomenological Reflections on Life's Beginnings

From the time of conception, through the gestation of pregnancy, to the birth of a newborn child exists an extraordinary, emergent ethics. How does this ethics come into being when a child is conceived? How does the appearance of ethics in pregnancy differ from its emergence after birth? How does the original meaning of ethics relate to modern morality in decision making?

In this book, Michael van Manen explores these ethical moral complexities and conceptualizations of life’s beginnings. He...