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Carefully curated stories from After Dinner Conversation magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics of bioethics. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions.
Story Summary List
- Sacrificing Mercy: A devout Christian refuses a heart transplant based on her religious convictions.
- The Human Experience: A married couple negotiates the genetic future of their unborn child.
- Euthanasia: In a dystopian future, Hank works on a farm for the euthanizing of sick, unwanted, or abandoned animals.
- In Defense Of The Harvest: The first recipient does his best to explain the situation that created the law for harvesting prisoner organs.
- Two-Percenters: A new treatment may allow 98% of the people to be genetically enhanced, but at the expense of the 2% who already are.
- The Decay: Benjamin's pharmacy suggests he consider enrolling in a government program to end his life.
- Visions of Midwives: A midwife in training learns the midwife secret, that at the moment of birth each midwife is able to see the future of the newly born child.
- On Good Authority: A doctor with a new vaccine for the "zombie virus" takes it to the next town and discovers two startling revelations.
- Step Back: A husband and wife decide to have a natural childbirth and find it's more than they bargained.
- All Harriet's Pieces: A young girl faces the death of her mother and the loss of her closest companion.
After Dinner Conversation believes humanity is improved by ethics and morals grounded in philosophical truth. Philosophical truth is discovered through intentional reflection and respectful debate. In order to facilitate that process, we have created a growing series of short stories across genres, a monthly magazine, themed books, and two podcasts. These accessible examples of abstract ethical and philosophical ideas are intended to draw out deeper discussions with friends, family, and students.
Reviews 5/5 Stars! "With Science fiction we can explore other galaxies and alien conflicts, but with philosophical fiction we can explore other minds and ethical conflicts. Let this book take you on a Phi-Fi adventure." - William Irwin, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, King's College "After Dinner Conversation has taken up the initiative to write themed collections of short stories that fit focused ethics courses - say, a course on bioethics, AI ethics, Tech ethics etc. These collections can offer a spine for such courses or individual stories could be added to a course as illustrative material to stimulate discussion. The stories are lively and engaging and followed by a set of questions to start classroom discussion. Also, outside of educational contexts, the stories will work nicely to stimulate conversation in families, elder hostels, youth clubs, or book groups. Give it a try - I trust that you will enjoy working with the material in this book!" - Luc Bovens, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
★★★ If you enjoy this story, subscribe via our website to "After Dinner Conversation Magazine" and get this, and other, similar ethical and philosophical short stories delivered straight to your inbox every month. (Just search "After Dinner Conversation Magazine")★★★
