In Almost Over, F. M. Kamm presents a wide-ranging philosophical discussion of the moral, legal, and medical issues related to aging, dying, and death. She begins by considering different views about whether and why death is bad for the person who dies and what these views imply about the death of humanity. She then considers whether there are conditions under which it might make sense to deliberately bring a person's death about, given the processes of aging and dying that precede it. In the opinion of some it is not only serious illness but ordinary aging that may give rise to this question and Kamm pays particular attention to the various ways in which aging could affect the distribution of "goods" and "bads" in a particular life. Specifically, she considers how the limitations and changes due to aging and the dying process affect meaning in one's life, and whether the absence of meaning affects the reasonableness of not resisting or even seeking one's death.
Kamm explores these questions not only as they relate to individuals' decisions but also as they relate to public policy and state action. Recently attempts have been made to help the general public think about end-of-life issues by devising questionnaires and conversation guides; Kamm evaluates some of these resources and articulates the moral implications of the assumptions they make about aging, dying, and value. She also takes up the issue of physician-assisted suicide as a way of ending one's life, considering its moral permissibility and whether or not it ought to be legalized as a matter of public policy. In doing so, she examines arguments from discussions about capital punishment concerning state action and also methods of balancing costs and benefits (including cost effectiveness analysis). In her analysis, Kamm engages with the views of such prominent philosophers, medical doctors, and legal theorists as Shelly Kagan, Susan Wolf, Atul Gawande, Ezekiel Emanual, and Neil
Gorsuch, among others, shedding new light on conversations about the moral complexities and consequences of aging, dying, and death.
Industry Reviews
"Kamm puts a recent tranche of public-facing work up for philosophical and ethical scrutiny...Chapters 3 and 4, which analyze Gawande's Being Mortal and a series of public policy documents that aim to improve end-of-life conversations and care, should be required reading for every ethicist... Kamm's close reading and rigorous analysis of the logic and tensions of Emanuel's essay ['Why I Hope to Die at 75'], including its implications for 'personal conduct and
public policy' given Emanuel's stature as a public intellectual and policymaker, make Chapter 6 required reading for any philosopher or bioethicist... Chapters 6, 7, and 8...are invaluable resources for
teaching, scholarship, and exploration of the topic of hastening death, going far beyond 'for/against' formulations to engage with premises and contradictions within various arguments. The extensive notes accompanying each chapter are a feast and a gift to readers." -- Nancy Berlinger, Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
"A collection with a looser and more dialectical flavor, but with no sacrifice of the care and rigor that characterizes Kamm's other work... an attractively pluralistic account of rational decision making, at least regarding the duration of our lives...chapter 3 is especially valuable as an example of how to put serious philosophy in dialogue with thoughtful medical practice... This chapter could thus have a long life as a text to introduce philosophers to how
clinicians think about death and the end of life, and vice versa... Almost Over is a worthy addition to Kamm's corpus on the ethics of killing and dying. It shows a moral philosopher wrestling with
issues that are very much alive for her and in the wider world." -- Michael Cholbi, Criminal Law and Philosophy
"Almost Over: Aging, Dying, Dead is a glance at the indispensable perspective of philosopher F. M. Kamm about some of the most pressing issues regarding the human condition. Kamm considers an impressively wide range of issues related to aging, dying and death in their ethical, existential, practical and legal dimensions... an inspiring guide for philosophers interested in...being useful to practitioners...a rich and deep book that constantly invites us
to think more and more carefully about vitally important issues for us mortal creatures." -- T. Bruno-Nino, Utilitas
"In Almost Over, Kamm puts to work her incredibly sharp analytical skills, using them to dissect the views and arguments of others. Her surgical precision frequently exposes surprisingly serious flaws...Kamm makes a strong case that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are morally permissible in a range of central cases...In addition, the book provides a wealth of material to interested philosophers...Kamm often puts her finger on fascinating and
underexplored issues...Almost Over should prove a valuable resource for anyone interested in end-of-life health-care policy. One of the book's key strengths is the constructive, insightful, and very hands-on
criticism that it offers of some of the existing policies that aim to regulate end-of-life care in the United States...Kamm is often brilliant, and almost always brilliantly clear, in her analysis of the positions of others." -- Susanne Burri, MIND
"Kamm's arguments are nearly beyond reproach...[the book] provides an authoritative and exhaustive account of what precisely makes death bad... Kamm provides precise formulations of simple pro-PAS arguments.... A distinctivecontribution of the book is an extended argument for the idea that if refusal of life sustaining medical treatment is permissible then for the same reasons one should think PAS or euthanasia is permissible...Kamm is highly convincing on this
point, and leaves readers in puzzlement as to why so many such as Emanuel and Gorsuch support the former but not the latter.... Readers interested in this argument or in a comprehensive view of death
and aging's badness, would be served well by close attention to Kamm's arguments here." -- Ben Sarbey, Bioethics
"In Almost Over, F.M. Kamm addresses issues that are literally matters of life and death, and offers an inviting entry point to her unique way of doing philosophy. She introduces and explains topics in an accessible way, while advancing debates with careful arguments. She also takes on some of our most insightful public intellectuals on these topics, and makes devastating points against their views. She excels at drawing novel conceptual distinctions
and revealing previously overlooked logical possibilities; in fact, she often introduces distinctions that are so powerful that one is astonished that no one had thought of them before. Almost Over is a must
read for scholars and students in bioethics, and for anyone interested in death, euthanasia, or assisted suicide." -- Jeffrey Brand, Professor of Philosophy, George Washington University
"For many years, Kamm has written with great insight about death and related issues such as euthanasia and assisted suicide. She is justly renowned among philosophers for the originality of her ideas and the subtlety and intricacy of her arguments. The essays in Almost Over, while retaining the rigor of her earlier work, engage with the thinking of more popular writers and explore issues of policy as well as philosophical theory. Her thoughts in this
book are humane, profound, and wise. They are the mature reflections on the meaning and value of life, and on the meaning of death, of one of the greatest living moral philosophers." -- Jeff McMahan, White's
Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford
