In recent years, many important moral, social, and political issues have come under philosophical scrutiny, with the result that applied or practical ethics has become one of the largest areas of growth in philosophy. These specially commissioned essays by many of the leading figures in applied ethics track that growth. They provide substantive discussions of the pressing issues that orient around the topics in question, and, collectively, constitute an in-depth, state-of-the-art account of present-day philosophical thinking in practical ethics.

A Companion to Applied Ethics is the most ambitious and authoritative account of applied ethics available. The volume will serve professionals as an indispensable resource, and, because it is written accessibly, will provide students and educated laymen with an excellent guide to the current state of play in substantive discussion by philosophers of major moral, social, and political issues.

R. G. Frey is Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on applied ethics, normative theory, and the history of eighteenth-century British moral philosophy. With Gerald Dworkin and Sissela Bok, he is the author of Euthanasia and Physician-assisted Suicide (1998).

Christopher Heath Wellman is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. He is co-editor, with Andrew Cohen, of Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics (Blackwell 2004).