Bioethics: Ancient Themes in Contemporary Issues (Basic Bioethics) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262611775 ISBN 13: 9780262611770

Publisher: MIT Press, 2002

Synopsis

In recent years, bioethicists have worked on government commissions, on ethics committees in hospitals and nursing homes, and as bedside consultants. Because ethical knowledge is based on experience within the field rather than on universal theoretical propositions, it is open to criticism for its lack of theoretical foundation. Once in the clinic, however, ethicists noted the extent to which medical practice itself combined the certitudes of science with craft forms of knowledge. In an effort to forge a middle path between pure science and applied medical and ethical knowledge, bioethicists turned to the work of classical philosophy, especially the theme of a practical wisdom that entails a variable knowledge of particulars. In this book contemporary bioethicists and scholars of ancient philosophy explore the import of classical ethics on such pressing bioethical concerns as managed care, euthanasia, suicide, and abortion. Although the contributors write within the limits of their own disciplines, through cross references and counterarguments they engage in fruitful dialogue.

About this title

About the Authors

Mark G. Kuczewski is Director of Graduate Studies at the Center for the Study of Bioethics, Medical College of Wisconsin.

Ronald Polansky is Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University, Pennsylvania.

Arthur L. Caplan is Director of the Division of Medical Ethics in the Department of Population Health at New York University's Langone Medical Center.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0262611775
• ISBN 13: 9780262611770
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 318
• Editor: Kuczewski Mark G., Polansky Ronald