pt. 1. Bioethics. What is "bioethics"? (Quid est "bioethics"?) / Dianne N. Irving -- Decision at the end of life: the use and abuse of the concept of futility / Edmund Pellegrino -- pt. 2. Questions of worldview. But who are the innocent? / John J. Conley -- Taking abortion seriously: a philosophical critique of the new prolife rhetorical shift / Francis J. Beckwith -- Gaudium et spes as a blueprint for the culture of life / Robert F. Gotcher -- Sowing the wind, reaping the whirlwind: from Frederick Taussig's Abortion: spontaneous and induced (1936) to Warren Hern's Abortion practice (1984) -- Life after communism: democracy and abortion in Eastern Europe and Russia / Patrick J. Flood -- pt. 3. Anthropological and sociological perspectives. Does premature intercourse delay psychological maturation? An analysis of outcome data of the 1998-1999 Teen STAR program / Hanna Klaus -- Anthropological differences between contraception and natural family planning / Richard J. Fehring and William Kurz -- Relinquishment of motherhood: concept analysis / Teresa La Monica -- Abortion practice as a perpetration-induced trauma / Rachel M. MacNair -- The birth control pill: abortifacient and contraceptive / William Colliton Jr.-- pt. 4. Literary perspectives. Bizarre fiction on the right-to-life issues / Jeff Koloze -- Sentiment, science, and thanatos in the work of Walker Percy / Francis E. Zapatka -- Silencing Lorraine Hansberry / Bernadette Waterman Ward -- A global perspective. Assisted suicide and euthanasia / John C. Willke