Splitting the Difference

"Like fire and secrecy," writes Martin Benjamin, "compromise is both indispensable and dangerous to civilized life." Using wide-ranging examples drawn from current debates--including a variety of important medical and bioethical cases--he explores the surprisingly rich and complex notion of compromise and integrity in ethics and politics. He tackles tough questions--how practical and theoretical ethics are related, what compromise means for ethical theory, how compromise is a matter of judgment, and whether it is possible to compromise without being compromised. In the final chapter he explores the possibility of political compromise in a matter of great ethical significance--abortion.