“Peter Singer . . . has probably has a larger popular readership than any professional philosopher since Bertrand Russell, and more success in effecting changes in acceptable behavior.” —The New England Journal of Medicine

“Singer convincingly argues that [our traditional Western] definition [of death] is inadequate . . . he challenges the disjunction between our willingness to tolerate withdrawing means to sustain life and our rejection of measures . . . that would actively end it.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Far from pointing a way out of today's moral dilemmas, Singer's book is a road map for driving down the darkest of moral blind alleys . . . Read it to remind yourself of the enormities of which putatively civilized beings are capable.” —The Washington Post Book World