Bioethics: A Return to Fundamentals

About this book

An updated and expanded successor to Culver and Gerts Philosophy in Medicine this book integrates moral philosophy with clinical medicine to present a comprehensive summary of the theory concepts and lines of reasoning underlying the field of bioethics. Rather than concentrating narrowly on bioethics and investigating moral philosophy only marginally the authors provide an explicit account of common morality and show how it applies to and is modified by the realities of clinical medicine. Such broader knowledge finds its specific practical application when one attempts to resolve the more complex and difficult cases. This book does not attempt to settle all controversial matters but rather provides an ethical framework that various parties to the dispute can accept and use as a basis for reaching agreement. Thus the authors main goal is to facilitate ethical discussion. Their detailed analyses of death and disease maintain the theoretical objectivity of these concepts while recognizing their central role in social and medical practices. They also provide in-depth discussions of the central concepts and issues in bioethics: competence consent justification for moral rule violations and confidentiality. Paternalism one of the most pervasive problems in clinical medicine is accorded special attention. All these concepts have been integrated and systematically grounded within common morality. The book is richly illustrated with discussions of clinical cases. The authors explicitly compare their position with other accounts of bioethics such as principlism casuistry and virtue theory. Their discussion of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide clarifies and evaluates the recent legal decisions on these topics. The arguments throughout the volume stand out with characteristic clarity and cogency. A fresh and all-encompassing approach to bioethics that does not shy away from controversy Bioethics: A Return to Fundamentals will interest not only students in philosophy of medicine and medical ethics courses but also moral philosophers and bioethicists as well as doctors nurses and other health care professionals.