Kamm explores questions of life and death as illustrations of general issues in moral theory. Resuming her development of non- consequentialist ethical theory and its application to practical ethical problems, she explores the distinction between killing and letting die, between harming and not aiding, and between intending and foreseeing harm.

"Kamm's book is a brilliant and powerful defense of the deontological perspective concerning the morality of killing. It is arguably the most impressive book-length treatment of substantive ethics since Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons was published over a decade ago...[H]er painstakingly meticulous case method yields a wealth of important insights."--Ethics "...an impressive display of Francis Kamm's talent for discerning hard-to-see but morally salient differences between apparently similar cases. This, in conjunction with its several theoretical innovations, make the book well worth reading."--The Philosophical Review "Kamm's book is a brilliant and powerful defense of the deontological perspective concerning the morality of killing. It is arguably the most impressive book-length treatment of substantive ethics since Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons was published over a decade ago...[H]er painstakingly meticulous case method yields a wealth of important insights."--Ethics "...an impressive display of Francis Kamm's talent for discerning hard-to-see but morally salient differences between apparently similar cases. This, in conjunction with its several theoretical innovations, make the book well worth reading."--The Philosophical Review