A fascinating look at Buddhist, especially Tibetan, views of death and their implications for a Buddhist bioethics.
This book explores the Buddhist view of death and its implications for contemporary bioethics. Writing primarily from within the Tibetan tradition, author Karma Lekshe Tsomo discusses Buddhist notions of human consciousness and personal identity and how these figure in the Buddhist view of death. Beliefs about death and enlightenment and states between life and death are also discussed. Tsomo goes on to examine such hot-button topics as cloning, abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, organ donation, genetic engineering, and stem-cell research within a Buddhist context, introducing new ways of thinking about these highly controversial issues.
“This is an important work which should be read not only by those interested in Buddhism but also by those involved in providing health care and in shaping public policy on bioethical issues.” — Ethics and Medicine
“ This is an extremely clear, cogent, compassionate, and well-written survey of Buddhist philosophical, religious, ethical, and practical perspectives on the question of death and dying. The author does a marvelous job presenting not only the range of traditional views, but also some of the contemporary conversations and debates being held both in Asia and the West about this timely topic.” — Beata Grant, translator of Daughters of Emptiness: Poems of Chinese Buddhist Nuns
Karma Lekshe Tsomo is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. She is the editor of Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements and Buddhist Women Across Cultures: Realizations, and the author of Sisters in Solitude: Two Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Ethics for Women, all published by SUNY Press.
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