The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics

by Steinbock, Bonnie

• ISBN13: 9780199273355
• ISBN10: 0199273359
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-03-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Bonnie Steinbock presentsThe Oxford Handbook of Bioethics--an authoritative, state-of-the-art guide to current issues in bioethics. Thirty-four contributors reflect the interdisciplinarity that is characteristic of bioethics, and its increasingly international character. Thirty topics are covered in original essays written by some of the world's leading figures in the field, as well as by some newer "up-and-comers." The essays address both perennial issues, such as the methodology of bioethics, autonomy, justice, death, and moral status, and newer issues, such as biobanking, stem cell research, cloning, pharmacogenomics, and bioterrorism. Other topics concern mental illness and moral agency, the rule of double effect, justice and the elderly, the definition of death, organ transplantation, feminist approaches to commodification of the body, life extension, advance directives, physician-assisted death, abortion, genetic research, population screening, enhancement, research ethics, and the implications of public and global health for bioethics. Anyone who wants to know how the central debates in bioethics have developed in recent years, and where the debates are going, will want to consult this book. It will be an invaluable resource not only for scholars and graduate students in bioethics, but also for those in philosophy, medicine, law, theology, social science, public policy, and public health who wish to keep abreast of developments in bioethics.

Author Biography

Bonnie Steinbock is Professor of Philosophy at the University at Albany, where she teaches courses in ethics, applied ethics, philosophy of law, bioethics, public policy, and public health. She is also on the faculty of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College. She has lectured all over the world on the ethics of reproduction and genetics, and has appeared in various media, including The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Her many publications include over 60 articles and a book, Life Before Birth:The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses (Oxford 1992). She has also edited Legal and Ethical Issues in Human Reproduction (Ashgate 2002). She is a Fellow of the Hastings Centre, the Chair of its Fellows Council, and a member of its Board of Directors. She is also a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

Table of Contents

Notes on the Contributors	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Theoretical and Methodological Issues
Methods in Bioethics	p. 15
The Way We Reason Now: Reflective Equilibrium in Bioethics	p. 46
Autonomy	p. 72
Mental Disorder, Moral Agency, and the Self	p. 90
'Reinventing' the Rule of Double Effect	p. 114
Justice and Policy
Policy-Making in Pluralistic Societies	p. 153
Tiers Without Tears: The Ethics of a Two-Tier Health Care System	p. 175
Justice and the Elderly	p. 190
Bodies and Bodily Parts
Organ Transplantation	p. 211
Biobanking	p. 240
For Dignity or Money: Feminists on the Commodification of Women's Reproductive Labour	p. 258
The end-of Life
The Definition of Death	p. 285
The Aging Society and the Expansion of Senility: Biotechnological and Treatment Goals	p. 304
Death Is a Punch in the Jaw: Life-Extension and its Discontents	p. 324
Precedent Autonomy, Advance Directives, and End-of-Life Care	p. 349
Physician-Assisted Death: The State of the Debate	p. 375
Reproduction and Cloning
Abortion Revisited	p. 395
Moral Status, Moral Value, and Human Embryos: Implications for Stem Cell Research	p. 416
Therapeutic Cloning: Politics and Policy	p. 441
Genetics and Enhancement
Population Genetic Research and Screening: Conceptual and Ethical Issues	p. 471
Enhancement	p. 491
Genetic Interventions and the Ethics of Enhancement of Human Beings	p. 516
Pharmacogenomics: Ethical and Regulatory Issues	p. 536
Research Ethics
Clinical Equipoise: Foundational Requirement or Fundamental Error?	p. 571
Research on Cognitively Impaired Adults	p. 597
Research in Developing Countries	p. 621
Animal Experimentation	p. 648
Public and Global Health
The Implications of Public Health for Bioethics	p. 671
Global Health	p. 696
Bioethics and Bioterrorism	p. 721
Index	p. 735
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