The Basics of Bioethics

The third edition of The Basics of Bioethics continues to provide a balanced and systematic ethical framework to help students analyze a wide range of controversial topics in medicine, and consider ethical systems from various religious and secular traditions. The Basics of Bioethics covers the “Principalist” approach and identifies principles that are believed to make behavior morally right or wrong. It showcases alternative ethical approaches to health care decision making by presenting Hippocratic ethics as only one among many alternative ethical approaches to health care decision-making. The Basics of Bioethics offers case studies, diagrams, and other learning aids for an accessible presentation. Plus, it contains an all-encompassing ethics chart that shows the major questions in ethics and all of the major answers to these questions.

Robert M. Veatch, Ph.D., is Professor of Medical Ethics and former director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, where he is also professor of philosophy and adjunct professor in the medical school. He has taught medical ethics at Georgetown, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, Union College, and St. George's University School of Medicine. He was formerly Associate for Medical Ethics at the Hastings Center and is a registered pharmacist.