Response by Ann M Begley to comments by Sellman,and Butts and Rich on: `Guilty but good: defending voluntary active euthanasia from a virtue perspective'

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Pyne R. The professional dimension: professional regulation in nursing, midwifery and health visiting. In: Tingle J , Cribb A eds. Nursing law and ethics. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2002: 31-47 [discussion of similar problems].

Harman G. Moral philosophy meets social psychology: virtue ethics and the fundamental attribution error. Proc Aristotelian Soc 1999 ; 99: 315-31 [further discussion].

Doris JM Persons, situations, and virtue ethics. Nous 1998; 32: 504-30 [further discussion].

McDowell J. Virtue and reason. The Monist 1979; 62: 331-50 [discussion of `virtue from the inside out' and `virtue from the outside in'].

Kant I. Grounding for the metaphysics of morals, third edition. (1785 ) (Ellington JW trans.) Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1993: 441-45 [heteronomy and rejecting external rules].

Aristotle The ethics of Aristotle; the Nicomachean ethics. (Thompson JAK trans.) London: Penguin, 1976: 1106b36-1107a1.

Louden RB Kant's virtue ethics. Philosophy 1986; 61: 473-89 [discussion of moral motivation].

Foot P. Virtues and vices and other essays in moral philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 1978 [further discussion].

Aristotle. The ethics of Aristotle; the Nicomachean ethics. (Thompson JAK trans.) London: Penguin, 1976: 1104b1-20.

Kant I. Grounding for the metaphysics of morals, third edition. (1785 ) (Ellington JW trans.) Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1993: 397-99 [detailed explanation].

Urmson JO Aristotle's ethics. Oxford: Blackwell , 1998: 34 [further reading].

Hume D. (1751) Beauchamp T ed. An enquiry concerning the principles of morals. A dialogue: 28. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998: 28.

Irwin TH Plato's moral theories. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976 [in-depth discussion].

Hamilton E , Cairns H eds. The collected dialogues of Plato. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. [In The statesman, 306c, the stranger would appear to accept that the virtues are many: `This pair of virtues are in a certain sense enemies from of old', and is there not `… something inherent in them which keeps alive a family quarrel among them?' See also Laws, 965d-e: `If we let this slip through our fingers, can we suppose we shall ever be fully equipped for a virtue of which we cannot tell whether it is many things, or four, or one.' Also, Aristotle, The Nichomachean ethics, 1098a8-27: `The good life for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind.' (emphasis added).]

Pence G. Recent works on virtues. Am Philos Q 1984; 21: 294 [discussion].

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Wolf S. Moral psychology and the unity of virtues. Ratio 2007; 20: 145-67.

Aristotle. The ethics of Aristotle; the Nicomachean ethics. (Thompson JAK trans.) London: Penguin, 1976: 1106b21-3.