Expanding Horizons in Bioethics

by Galston, Arthur William; Peppard, Christiana Z.

• ISBN13: 9781402030611
• ISBN10: 1402030614
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-05-18
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

What are the resources and needs, the strengths and the vulnerabilities of patients, of society, or of nature? How do we evaluate the societal potential of scientific discovery?It is fairly well assured that we are influencing the terms of existence of many inhabitants of this planet, from flora to fauna to humans. Moreover, history has shown that while technologies can be used neutrally, they can be (and have been) used to the great benefit '¬" or the great detriment '¬" of human life and the fate of the world as a whole. How various types of knowledge and technological ability will be deployed is up to us, individually and collectively. How such information and ability should be deployed, and for what reasons, are questions at the core of bioethical inquiry. These are the "expanding horizons in bioethics" to which this volume refers.This volume is comprised of fourteen essays. It is a rare gathering of scholarly opinion, featuring well-known experts from a diversity of disciplines. The topics addressed are of immediate concern to the public. The essays ask questions about human nature, genetic technologies, reproductive rights, human subjects research, and environmental issues '¬" all in provocative and challenging new ways. Yet the themes that emerge throughout the volume are of enduring interest to anyone concerned about the interactions of scientific development, ethics, and society.This volume is of interest to students and teachers of bioethics and related topics, as well as to professionals working in these disciplines.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Acknowledgements	ix
Preface	xi
ARTHUR GALSTON
Introduction	xiii
CHRISTIANA PEPPARD
I. SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
The Past, Present and Future of Human Nature	3	(16)
SAMUEL GOROVITZ
Unethical Contexts for Ethical Questions	19	(16)
DAVID EHRENFELD
Human Subject Protections: Some Thoughts on Costs and Benefits in the Humanistic Disciplines	35	(24)
C. KRISTINA GUNSALUS
Secret State Experiments and Medical Ethics	59	(12)
JONATHAN MORENO
Cross-Cultural Considerations in Medical Ethics: The Case of Human Subjects Research	71	(16)
MARCIA ANGELL
II. MEDICAL ETHICS
Reproductive Rights and Health in the Developing World	87	(16)
RUTH MACKLIN
Genetic Testing of Human Embryos: Ethical Challenges and Policy Choices	103	(20)
KATHY HUDSON, SUSANNAH BARUCH & GAIL JAVITT
Choosing Our Children: The Uneasy Alliance of Law and Ethics in John Robertson's Thought	123	(18)
KAREN LEBACQZ
The Heart Disease Epidemic That Wasn't: Lessons Learned from Death Certificate Statistics	141	(20)
HARRY M. ROSENBERG
Recent History of End-of-Life Care and Implications for the Future	161	(24)
JAMES FLORY & EZEKIEL EMANUEL
III. ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
The Pragmatic Power and Promise of Theoretical Environmental Ethics: Forging a New Discourse	185	(24)
J. BAIRD CALLICOTT
The Expanding Circle and Moral Community Naturally Speaking	209	(12)
CHALMERS CLARK
Science, Conservation and Global Security	221	(12)
GEORGE M. WOODWELL
Energy, Technology and Climate: Running Out of Gas	233	(14)
DAVID GOODSTEIN
INDEX	247