Bioethics : what everyone needs to know / Bonnie Steinbock and Paul T. Menzel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Steinbock, Bonnie, author.

Menzel, Paul T., 1942- author.

Series:

What everyone needs to know.

What everyone needs to know

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical ethics.

Bioethics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2023]

Summary:

The questions and dilemmas of bioethics touch everyone. This title discusses the most difficult and controversial bioethical issues facing the public today, providing a way to think about them in a rigorous and thoughtful way. Topics include the philosophical and historical foundations of bioethics, advance directives, experimentation on human subjects, the definition of death, physician-assisted dying, abortion, disability, just healthcare systems, the allocation of scarce resources, pharmaceutical drug pricing, assisted reproductive technology, egg donation, surrogate motherhood, sex selection, and the genetic modification of humans.

Contents:

Cover

Half-Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1 What Are the Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics?

What is "normative ethics"?

What are some important moral theories for bioethics?

How does utilitarian reasoning work?

What principles are featured in Kantian ethics?

What does Natural Law ethics contribute to bioethics?

What is the "principles approach" to bioethics?

Concluding thoughts

2 How Has the Shift from Paternalism to Autonomy Shaped Bioethics?

What is paternalism in general?

How do strong and weak paternalism differ?

What is medical paternalism?

What does autonomy mean in bioethics?

What is informed consent?

What was the significance of the Belmont Report?

What historical forces led to the rejection of medical paternalism?

Do the effects of serious illness justify medical paternalism?

Do irrational choices justify medical paternalism?

Does respect for cultural differences justify deception?

How should doctors give bad news to patients?

Is deception justified in some "hard cases"?

How should bioethicists and healthcare professionals address racism?

3 Do Advance Directives Protect Patient Autonomy?

What is an advance directive for medical care?

What constitutes a relevant change of mind?

What is the "then-.self/.now-.self" problem?

How have defenders of advance directives responded to this problem?

Can advance directives accommodate the then-.self/.now-.self problem?

What communication challenges limit the use of advance directives?

4 When Is Experimentation on Human Subjects Unethical?

What principles for ethical research emerged in the Nuremberg Code?

What notable experiments influenced the development of medical research ethics?.

Are randomized clinical trials ethically questionable?

When do placebo-.control trials violate basic principles of medical ethics?

How do international contexts affect the ethics of trials?

When are "challenge" trials for new vaccines acceptable?

When do exclusions and priorities unjustly affect disadvantaged groups?

5 How Should Death Be Defined and Determined?

What is death?

What is brain death?

Are neurological criteria a better indicator of death?

What are the practical advantages of neurological criteria?

Are there scientific arguments in favor of brain death?

What are the arguments against brain death?

What is the significance of the case of Jahi McMath?

What would happen if we gave up brain death?

Should a higher-.brain standard be adopted?

Is death an event or a process-.and does it matter?

6 Is Physician-.Assisted Dying an Ethical Choice?

What is euthanasia?

What is the difference between voluntary and nonvoluntary euthanasia?

What was the Nazi "euthanasia" program?

What is self-.administered physician-.assisted dying?

What is the equal protection argument for PAD?

Where is self-.administered PAD legal in the United States?

What is the legal status of PAD elsewhere in the world?

What are the moral arguments in favor of PAD?

What are the moral arguments against PAD?

Is PAD inconsistent with the physician's role?

Would legalizing PAD undermine palliative care?

Does legalizing PAD create a slippery slope?

Is there really a need for PAD?

7 Is Abortion an Ethical Choice?

What is the conservative view of the moral status of the unborn?

Why do moderate conservatives think human life begins after conception?

Is abortion always wrong for conservatives?.

What is the liberal view of the moral status of the unborn?

What is the potentiality principle?

Does the person view justify infanticide?

How does the "future-.like-.ours" theory offer a new approach to abortion?

How does the embodied minds view affect the debate?

What are the implications of the interest view for abortion?

How does the interest view support a gradualist approach?

What about late abortions?

What role does the right to bodily self-.determination play?

8 What Are the Implications of the Disability Critique?

What is prenatal testing?

What is preimplantation genetic testing?

What is the purpose of PT and PGT?

What is the DC's objection to selective abortion?

What responses can be made to the DC?

Can prenatal testing be regarded as a preventive measure?

Does the choice of selective abortion display a bad parental attitude?

9 What Ethical Issues Are Raised by Assisted Reproductive Technology?

How is infertility defined, and what are its causes?

What medical procedures are used to treat infertility?

What ethical arguments favor ART?

Is adoption a better alternative than ART?

What are the health risks of IVF to women?

What are the health risks to offspring?

Are the offspring at risk of psychological harm?

Who should pay?

Is using ART to create nontraditional families ethically acceptable?

Does paying gamete donors or gestational carriers commodify reproduction?

Does payment exploit egg donors?

Does payment exploit gestational carriers?

Is the use of ART for medical sex selection ethical?

What arguments support the use of ART for nonmedical sex selection?

What are the arguments against nonmedical sex selection?

10 What Is Required for a Healthcare System to Be Just?.

What questions of justice arise in comparing healthcare systems?

How do utilitarian views of justice apply to healthcare systems?

What does an egalitarian view of justice require?

What does libertarian justice imply for choice of a healthcare system?

How do "market failure" and "cost-.shifting" affect health insurance?

What is unfair "free-.riding"?

To what extent does free-.riding affect arguments about insurance?

Why is insurance dangerous, and how can that danger be addressed?

What role does "public health" play in a just system?

Can common ground be found in debates about healthcare systems?

11 How Can Scarce Resources Be Allocated Justly?

Who should have priority for life-.saving organ transplants?

In a pandemic, who should get care first?

Should past behavior affect priority for care?

Should priorities be adjusted for structural inequities of health?

What priority, if any, should treatment have over prevention?

What should be included in the basic minimum available to everyone?

What is a "quality-.adjusted life year"?

Is it ethical to use QALYs to allocate healthcare resources?

Do "reference point" effects justify extra value at the end of life?

12 What Is a Justified Price for Pharmaceutical Drugs?

What is an ethically justified price?

What costs of research and development justify price?

Is market competition a good determinant of drug price?

What makes it difficult to discern the true effectiveness of a drug?

Should "value-.based pricing" be used to determine price?

What reforms are needed in markets and regulation?

Is patent protection compatible with global justice?

13 Is It Ethical to Genetically Modify Humans?

What is gene therapy?

What is CRISPR?.

What safety concerns does CRISPR raise?

Who was He Jiankui, and what did he do?

What was unethical about what He Jiankui did?

Can genetic modification of embryos to prevent disease be justified?

What about enhancement?

Does enhancement threaten authenticity?

Does enhancement violate autonomy?

Might enhancement be damaging to parent-.child relationships?

Are genes more deterministic than environmental influences?

Is gene therapy worth the cost?

Is genetic enhancement incompatible with social justice?

Should we alter human evolution?

Notes

Further Reading

Index.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on January 25, 2024).

Also issued in print: 2023.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-19-765800-8

0-19-765798-2