Who or what determines the right to die? Do advancing reproductive technologies change reproductive rights? What forces influence cultural standards of beauty? How do discipline, punishment, and torture reflect our attitudes about the human body?

In this challenging new book, Jean Bethke Elshtain, a nationally recognized scholar in political science and philosophy, and J. Timothy Cloyd, a strong new voice in social and political science, have assembled a collection of thought-provoking essays on these issues written by some of the finest minds of our day.

J. Timothy Cloyd earned his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts in 1991. He served as Coordinator for the Program in Social and Political Thought at Vanderbilt University from 1991 to 1994.

Jean Bethke Elshtain has written extensively on political philosophy, feminism, reproductive technology, the family, and the ethics of political and social thought and action. Her ten books include Women, Militarism, and War, The Family in Political Thought, and Just War Theory. She currently serves as Laura Spellman Rockefeller Chair of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago.