Ethics and Medical Technology: Essays on Artificial Intelligence, Enhancement, Privacy and Justice

This book provides a comprehensive survey of ethical issues raised by advanced medical technologies. The field’s leading authorities explore how artificial intelligence, telehealth, robot caregivers, genetic therapies and enhancement, stem cell research, neurotechnology, electronic health records, data collection, and digital nudging are reshaping the landscape of medical practice. Organized around core ethical themes, the chapters consider how new and emerging technologies transform personal identity, the provider-patient relationship, privacy and autonomy, and social equity. Contributors clarify the complex values involved in medical innovation and practice, and explore what is at stake in the current ethical debates around these issues. While offering a valuable introduction for advanced students, professional philosophers, medical ethicists, and policymakers, this book also advances the scholarly discussion by presenting original theses and arguments, making it essential reading for specialists.

Matthew C. Altman has published three single-authored monographs: A Theory of Legal Punishment (2021), Kant and Applied Ethics (2011), and A Companion to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (2008). He is co-author of The Hackett Introduction to Medical Ethics (2025) and The Fractured Self in Freud and German Philosophy (2013). Prior to this edited volume, Altman edited The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Punishment (2023), The Palgrave Kant Handbook (2017), and The Palgrave Handbook of German Idealism (2014). He serves as series editor for Palgrave Handbooks in German Idealism and Palgrave Handbooks in the Philosophy of Law. 

David Schwan specializes in applied ethics and moral psychology, with a current focus on the ethical dimensions of emerging medical technologies. His work has appeared in the Hastings Center Report, Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.