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This book examines a range of important conceptual, ethical, social and religious issues arising from mental handicap. It contains a vigorous defence of the contention that mentally handicapped human beings are persons. It attacks both the contemporary philosophical attempts to dismiss the personhood of mentally handicapped people and the genocidal policies which those attempts suggest. It explores the logic of the attitudes which have lead to the marginalisation and oppression of the mentally handicapped.

This study is an introduction to the problems of moral philosophy designed particularly for students of theology and religious studies. It offers an account of the nature and subject matter of moral reasoning and of the major types of moral theory current in contemporary moral philosophy. The account aims to bring out the major issues in moral theory, to present a clear, non-technical articulation of the structure of moral knowledge and to explore the relation between religious belief and morality.