The Ethical Canary

by Somerville, Margaret A.

• ISBN13: 9780773527843
• ISBN10: 0773527842
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ Pr

Summary

Every day we hear news about medical or scientific breakthroughs and the complex ethical issues they raise. Feats that were never before possible, including cloning, genetically modifying food, mapping human chromosomes, and using animal organs for human transplants, have opened up a Pandora's Box of ethical questions. Technology is advancing at such rate that the issue is not so much what we can do but rather whether we will do it. Margaret Somerville, a leading international authority on medicine, ethics, and the law, demonstrates that society must set ethically acceptable limits on scientific advances. In this controversial and timely book Somerville sheds light on the urgent ethical and legal questions that vie for our attention. Along the way, she calls upon us to recognize the mysteries that lie at the heart of our lives and the metaphysical reality that gives meaning to life.The Ethical Canary is a major contribution to the debate about the hottest issues in ethics today, from one of the world's leading authorities.

Author Biography

Margaret Somerville, the first winner of Unesco's Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science, is the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition
Prologue	ix
1. Searching for Ethics in a Secular Society	1	(21)
2. Making and Un-Making Babies The Ethics of Human Reproduction	22	(33)
3. Immortalizing Our Genetic Selves The Ethics of Human Cloning	55	(34)
4. Crossing the Animal-Human Divide The Ethics of Xenotransplantation	89	(28)
5. Dealing with Death The Ethics of Euthanasia	117	(35)
6. Terminating Life Support without Consent The Ethics of Withdrawing Treatment	152	(23)
7. Pushing Parents to the Sidelines The Ethics of Imposing Treatment on Seriously Ill Children	175	(27)
8. Altering Baby Boys' Bodies The Ethics of Infant Male Circumcision	202	(18)
9. Denying Health Care to Individuals The Ethics of Access	220	(27)
10. Structuring Healthcare Systems The Ethics of Allocation	247	(32)
11. Creating an Ethics Toolbox What Does "Doing Ethics" Require?	279	(22)
Epilogue	301	(2)
Sources	303	(18)
Acknowledgements	321	(4)
Index	325