18. Do the dead have rights? With Joseph Bowen

Send us Fan MailEthical questions about the dead are frequently interesting, puzzling, surprising, and weird. All of these things become clear in this conversation with Dr Joseph Bowen. Joe is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds, specialising in moral, political, and legal philosophy. As well as whether the dead have rights, his research focuses on the nature of rights and directed duties, the justifications for and constraints on harming, the nature and scope of duties to rescue, and just war theory. Here's Joe:https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/4794/dr-joseph-bowenhttps://joseph-bowen.weebly.com/He's written about whether the dead have rights in this paper:Bowen, J. 2022.  ‘The Interest Theory of Rights at the Margins: Posthumous Rights’, Without Trimmings: The Legal, Moral, and Political Philosophy of Matthew Kramer​, Visa Kurki & Mark McBride (eds), (Oxford: Oxford University Press).And here are some other readings which might be of interest:Jeff McMahan, ‘Death and the Value of Life’ Ethics 99, 1 (1998), pp. 32-61.Cécile Fabre, ‘Posthumous Rights’, in Matthew H. Kramer, and others (eds), The Legacy of H.L.A. Hart: Legal, Political, and Moral Philosophy (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2008).David Boonin, Dead Wrong: The Ethics of Posthumous Harm (Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2019).Ben Bradley, Well-Being and Death (New York; Oxford University Press, 2009).Ethics Untangled is produced by IDEA, The Ethics Centre at the University of Leeds.As well as the podcast, Ethics Untangled is also the name for the long-form online presence of IDEA.Bluesky: @ethicsuntangled.bluesky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/idea_leeds/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideacetlLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/idea-ethics-centre/