Bioethics and the Human Goods: An Introduction to Natural Law Bioethics - Softcover

Gómez-Lobo, Alfonso

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626161631 ISBN 13: 9781626161634

Publisher: Georgetown University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Bioethics and the Human Goods offers students and general readers a brief introduction to bioethics from a "natural law" philosophical perspective. This perspective, which traces its origins to classical antiquity, has profoundly shaped Western ethics and law and is enjoying an exciting renaissance. While compatible with much in the ethical thought of the great religions, it is grounded in reason, not religion. In contrast to the currently dominant bioethical theories of utilitarianism and principlism, the natural law approach offers an understanding of human flourishing grounded in basic human goods, including life, health, friendship, and knowledge, and in the wrongness of intentionally turning against, or neglecting, these goods. The book is divided into two sections: Foundations and Issues. Foundations sketches a natural law understanding of the important ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice and explores different understandings of "personhood" and whether human embryos are persons. Issues applies a natural law perspective to some of the most controversial debates in contemporary bioethics at the beginning and end of life: research on human embryos, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, the withdrawal of tube-feeding from patients in a "persistent vegetative state," and the definition of death. The text is completed by appendices featuring personal statements by Alfonso Gomez-Lobo on the status of the human embryo and on the definition and determination of death.

About this title

Product Description

In this concise and accessible introductory text Gomez-Lobo and Keown introduce a "human goods" approach to bioethics as an alternative to the dominant principle-based method in the field (best illustrated by Beauchamp and Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, OUP). Following Aristotle and the natural law tradition the authors demonstrate how an emphasis on human goods--such as health, life, family, friendship, work and play, the experience of beauty, knowledge, and integrity--provides a necessary context for difficult medical decisions and can help us understand critical issues at the beginning and end of life. The manuscript includes two parts: Foundations and Issues. In the Foundations section the authors explain how one can think about bioethics, offering definitions of ethics and ontology (the study of being) and prudential reasoning. In the Issues section they address genetics, abortion, infanticide, suicide and physician-assisted suicide, nutrition and hydration, and transplantation ethics. The book includes appendices featuring personal statements by Gomez-Lobo on the status of the human embryo and criteria for the determination of death.

Review

An impressive and welcome book . . . This book [is] dialectically engaged with an important and influential strand of contemporary bioethics.

--American Journal of Bioethics

This excellent book is an ideal read for the busy clinician.

--Catholic Medical Quarterly

The book is well written and offers a different, much-needed voice in contemporary bioethics discussions. . . . [The authors] have largely accomplished the task they set for themselves [and] have presented a solid introduction to bioethics through the lens of natural law theory.

--The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

The authors have strongly established credibility in the field and this specific topic. . . . This book meets its primary objective and can act as a great introductory resource for graduate students interested in bioethics because the philosophical arguments are assessable. When compared to other philosophical books in bioethics, this one is accessible to readers outside of mainstream philosophical bioethics and, therefore, an important contribution to the field.

--Doody's Book Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Georgetown University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1626161631
• ISBN 13: 9781626161634
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 150