Today, advances in medicine and biotechnology occur at a rapid pace and have a profound impact on our lives. Mechanical devices can sustain an injured person's life indefinitely. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the body and brain can reveal disorders before
symptoms appear. Genetic testing of embryos can predict whether people will have diseases earlier or later in life. It may even become possible to clone human beings. These and other developments raise difficult ethical questions.
Biomedical Ethics is an engaging philosophical
introduction to the most important ethical positions and arguments in six areas of biomedicine: the patient-doctor relationship, medical research on humans, reproductive rights and technologies, genetics, medical decisions at the end of life, and the allocation of scarce medical resources. Concisely
capturing the historical, contemporary, and future-oriented aspects of the field, author Walter Glannon discusses both perennial issues in medicine, such as doctors' duties to patients, and recent and emerging issues in scientific innovation, including gene therapy and cloning. Ideal for
undergraduate courses in contemporary moral problems, introduction to ethics, and introduction to bioethics, Biomedical Ethics is accessible to students who have little or no background in ethical theory, medicine, or biotechnology.
Each chapter opens with an Introduction and ends with a Conclusion and Selected Readings.
Preface:
1. History and Theories
The Need for Theories
Consequentialism and Deontology
Virtue Ethics and Feminist Ethics
Communitarianism and Liberalism
The
Rejection of Theories: Casuistry and Cultural Relativism
2. The Patient-Doctor Relationship
Informed Consent
Therapeutic Privilege
Confidentiality
Cross-Cultural Relations
What Sort of Doctors Do We Need?
3. Medical Research on Humans
Design of Clinical
Trials
Equipoise, Randomization, and Placebos
Problems with Consent
Vulnerable Populations
Protections and Justice
4. Reproductive Rights and Technologies
Abortion
The Moral Status of Embryos
Surrogate Pregnancy
Sex Selection
Cloning
5.
Genetics
Genetic Testing and Screening
Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis
Gene Therapy
Genetic Enhancement
Eugenics
6. Medical Decisions at the End of Life
Defining Death
Withdrawing and Withholding Treatment
Double Effect
Euthanasia and
Physician-Assisted Suicide
Futility
7. Allocating Scarce Medical Resources
Setting Priorities
Quality-Adjusted Life-Years
Age-Based Rationing
Organ Transplantation
Two-Tiered Health Care
Index:
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
Glannon Glannon is Assistant Professor, Centre for Applied Ethics, University of British Columbia.
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