Biomedical Ethics : A Multidisciplinary Approach to Moral Issues in Medicine and Biology

Today's complex set of moral issues involving medical research, health care, and the biological sciences can best be understood through the diverse perspectives of healthcare-providers, scientists, and others who have a vital stake in the field. Culled from the pages of the groundbreaking journal, Lahey Clinic Medical Ethics, this book offers students, healthcare professionals, and the general public insights into key ethical concepts and their practical applications through the writings of physicians, philosophers, theologians, nurses, humanists, anthropologists, psychologists, historians, policy experts, lawyers, and others.

The collection includes introductory articles by the editor, Dr. David Steinberg, that put into context the contributions by such noted experts as Jerome Kagan, Laurie Zoloth, Stuart Youngner, Daniel Callahan, Albert Jonson, George Annas, Dan Brock, Bernard Gert, Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer, Alexander Morgan Capron, and Robert Veatch. The volume includes discussions of bioethical challenges in the clinical arena; ethical challenges associated with advances in biotechnology, genetics, and reproductive medicine; legal perspectives; physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia; health policy and distributive justice; the experience of illness, and many more critical issues. Commentary on such issues from a broad range of perspectives--including debates among proponents of clashing viewpoints--adds to the book's richness, texture, and depth.

Biomedical Ethics is an essential volume for professional schools of medicine, law, nursing, medical technology, social work, and healthcare administration, and it is an excellent supplemental text for ethics courses in philosophy, religion, sociology, and public policy.

DAVID STEINBERG, M.D. is Director of the Section of Medical Ethics at Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, where he practices hematology. He is editor of the journal, Lahey Clinic Medical Ethics, and is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.