ABOUT THIS BOOK

An authoritative introduction to bioethics, Life Choices examines a comprehensive range of ethical questions and brings together some of the most probing and instructive essays published in the field.

Some of the articles are classics in the literature of bioethics, while others address current issues. Topics include moral decision making, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, life-sustaining technologies, organ transplantation, reproductive technologies, and the allocation of health care resources.

This second edition features new sections on the goals and allocation of medicine and on the cloning of human beings. It also includes new articles on genetics, the duty to die, and ethical theory.

Written by the foremost authorities in bioethics, Life Choices provides a comprehensive introduction to the field. Instructors who have used the first edition as a text will welcome this new, updated edition. Scholars and health care practitioners will find it useful as a valuable reference on a wide range of bioethical issues.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Joseph H. Howell is director of instructional technology at Pensacola Junior College.

William Frederick Sale is chair of the social science division and associate professor of philosophy at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida.

REVIEWS

The volume deserves high praise . . . [It] provides a helpful collection of representative articles by leading bioethicists on a range of important topics. It belongs on the shelves of scholars, health care professionals, policy makers, and interested laypersons. Moreover, its inclusion of discussion questions after each essay will make it especially useful as an undergraduate text.

-- Academic Medicine

The articles . . . represent some of the most important positions taken on the topics under consideration.

-- Health Progress

Highly recommended not only to those involved in teaching bioethics but also to a general audience, including practicing physicians.

-- Canadian Medical Association Journal

An excellent text and resource . . . These essays represent some of the finest work by some of the most accomplished scholars in the field.

-- Doody's Review Service

An impressive collection of bioethical scholarship by a group of deservedly respected scholars.

-- Religious Studies Review

"The articles . . . represent some of the most important positions taken on the topics under consideration."

-- Health Progress

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface to the Second Edition

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Part I: Introduction: Can Ethics Provide Answers?

Can Ethics Provide Answers?James Rachels

The Role of Emotion in Ethical DecisionmakingSidney Callahan

Where Ethics Come From and What to Do About ItCarl Elliott

Part II: The Goals and Allocation of Medicine

The Goals of Medicine: Setting New PrioritiesA Hastings Center Project ReportExecutive SummarySetting New PrioritiesSpecifying the Goals of Medicine

Medicine and Public Health, Ethics and Human RightsJonathan M. Mann

Last Chance Therapies and Managed Care: Pluralism, Fair Procedures, and LegitimacyNorman Daniels and James E. Sabin

Rescuing Lives: Can't We Count?Paul T. Menzel

Public Goods and Fair Prices: Balancing Technological Innovation with Social Well-BeingBaruch Brody

Part III: Biomedicine, Rights, and Responsibilities

The Burden of DecisionAlexander Morgan Capron

What About the Family?John Hardwig

The Family in Medical DecisionmakingJeffrey Blustein

Part IV: Reproductive Freedom and Responsibility

Abortion: The Right to an ArgumentGilbert Meilaender

Is There Life After Roe v. Wade?Mary B. Mahowald

Abortion: Listening to the MiddleEdward A. Langerak

Part V: Termination of TreatmentIs There a Duty to Die?John Hardwig

Terminating Treatment: Age as a StandardDaniel Callahan

Triage in the ICURobert D. Truog

Is Consent Useful When Resuscitation Isn't?Giles R. Scofield

In Death's Shadow: The Meanings of Withholding Resuscitation

Must Patients Always Be Given Food and Water?Joanne Lynn and James F. Childress

Standards of Judgment for TreatmentEdited by Arthur Caplan and Cynthia B. Cohen

Deciding Not to Employ Agressive MeasuresEdited by Arthur Caplan and Cynthia B. Cohen

Anencephalic Donors: Separating the Dead from the DyingAlexander Morgan Capron

Assisted Suicide: Pro-Choice or Anti-Life?Richard Doerflinger

Voluntary Active EuthanasiaDan W. Brock

When Self-Determination Runs AmokDaniel Callahan

Part VI: Family, Parenthood, and New Reproductive Technologies

Artificial Means of Reproduction and Our Understanding of the FamilyRuth Macklin

Reproductive Gifts and Gift Giving: The Altruistic WomanJanice G. Raymond

Genetic Diagnosis of Human EmbryosAndrea Bonnicksen

Not All That Glitters is GoldBarbara Katz Rothman

Resolving Disputes over Frozen EmbryosJohn A. Robertson

The Case Against Thawing Unused Frozen EmbryosDavid T. Ozar

Part VII: Organ and Tissue Donation and Procurement and Transplantation

My Body, My PropertyLori B. Andrews

An Alternative to Property Rights in Human TissueMargaret S. Swain and Randy W. Marusyk

Organ Procurement: It's Not in the CardsArthur C. Caplan

Designated Organ Donation: Private Choice in Social ContextEike-Henner W. Kluge

Part VIII: Genetics, Human Nature, Human Destiny

First Fruits: Genetic ScreeingKathleen Nolan

Genetic Secrets: Social Issues of Medical Screening in a Genetic AgeElaine Draper

Bad Axioms in Genetic EngineeringC. Keith Boone

Genetics and Human MalleabilityW. French Anderson

Taking Behavioral Genetics SeriouslyErik Parens

Part IX: Cloning Human Beings: Responding to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission's ReportExecutive Summary

The Challenge of Public Ethics: Reflections on NABC's ReportJames F. Childress

Ban Cloning? Why NABC is WrongSusan M. Wolf

ContributorsArticles from the Hastings Center Report