The Variables of Moral Capacity

by Thomasma, David C.; Weisstub, David N.

• ISBN13: 9781402025518
• ISBN10: 1402025513
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

Moral capacity is an important feature of what it means to be human. In this volume, the contributors have taken on the daunting task of trying to distinguish between legal and moral capacity. This distinction is difficult at times for clinicians, philosophers and legal scholars alike. Part of the challenge of defining moral capacity lies in the difficulty of adequately categorizing it. For this reason, the editors have chosen to divide the book into three parts. The first looks at the concepts involved in the discussion of moral capacity; the second considers the role of moral capacity in the lives of professionals; and the final part reflects on case studies of moral capacity or incapacity illustrating the challenge that moral capacity presents - its definition lying between two seemingly incommensurable models, those of the threshold and continuum. This volume takes a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, and ties the disciplines of medicine, philosophy and law into the health context. It will be of interest to medical health professionals as well as researchers working in the areas of philosophy and law.

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Preface	1	(8)
PART ONE: Challenges of Moral Capacity
Choices, Autonomy, and Moral Capacity	9	(14)
David C. Thomasma
Self-Conceptions, Agency, and the Value of Individual Persons	23	(20)
Jeffrey Blustein
Kohlberg and the Structural-Developmental Approach to Moral Psychology	43	(14)
Lawrence Walker
Morality and Selfhood: Contributions from Moral Psychology	57	(22)
Karl Hennig
Developing Moral Capacity from Childhood to Young Adulthood	79	(16)
Anneliese A. Pontius
A Dream of Dirty Hands: Moral Conflict and Personal Conscience	95	(18)
Kristine Arnet Connidis
Capacity Is Not In Your Head: Why It Can Be a Mistake to Request a Psychiatric Consultation to Determine Capacity	113	(8)
Jeffrey Spike
How Not to Philosophize With a Hammer: Reply to Spike	121	(8)
Kathryn Montgomery
How Not to Philosophize With a Hammer: Reply to Montgomery	129	(10)
Jeffrey Spike
PART TWO: Professional Morality and Criteria for Health Care Decisions
Moral Capacity: The Tension Between Professional Nuture and Universal Nature	139	(12)
David N. Weisstub
David C. Thomasma
Some Ethical Principles for Adult Critical Care	151	(8)
Kenneth Kipnis
Anita Gerhard
The Influence of Pressure on Nurses' Moral Capacity	159	(14)
Beverly Kopala
Surrogate Decision Making: A Case for Boundaries	173	(14)
Rosamond Rhodes
Ian Holzman
Knowing Well or Living Well: Is Competence Relevant to Moral Experience and Capacity in Clinical Decision-Making	187	(16)
Evert van Leeuwen
Astrid Vellinga
Vulnerable Persons: Measuring Moral Capacity	203	(14)
Michel Silberfeld
Vulnerability in Research Subjects: An Analytical Approach	217	(18)
Kenneth Kipnis
PART THREE: Reflections on Moral Incapacity
The Bad Brain: Biology of Moral Thinking	235	(24)
Laurence R. Tancredi
Moral and Ethical Capacities of the Psychopath: An Integrated View	259	(22)
Willem H. J. Martens
The Moral Competence of Serial Killers: A Preliminary Exploration	281	(18)
George B. Palermo
Moral Capacities of Psychotic and Addicted Individuals	299	(10)
Robert Weinstock
Morality As Impulse and Ethics As ``Thinking'' About Morality: A Psychoanalytic Perspective	309	(6)
Christine Ury
Index	315