PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
AU  - Franklin G Miller
TI  - What makes killing wrong?
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2011-100351
DP  - 2013 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 3--7
VI  - 39
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/1/3.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/1/3.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2013 Jan 01; 39
AB  - What makes an act of killing morally wrong is not that the act causes loss of life or consciousness but rather that the act causes loss of all remaining abilities. This account implies that it is not even pro tanto morally wrong to kill patients who are universally and irreversibly disabled, because they have no abilities to lose. Applied to vital organ transplantation, this account undermines the dead donor rule and shows how current practices are compatible with morality.