Download or read book Bioethics and the Human Goods written by Alfonso Gómez-Lobo and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioethics and the Human Goods offers students and general readers a brief introduction to bioethics from a “natural law” philosophical perspective. This perspective, which traces its origins to classical antiquity, has profoundly shaped Western ethics and law and is enjoying an exciting renaissance. While compatible with much in the ethical thought of the great religions, it is grounded in reason, not religion. In contrast to the currently dominant bioethical theories of utilitarianism and principlism, the natural law approach offers an understanding of human flourishing grounded in basic human goods, including life, health, friendship, and knowledge, and in the wrongness of intentionally turning against, or neglecting, these goods. The book is divided into two sections: Foundations and Issues. Foundations sketches a natural law understanding of the important ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice and explores different understandings of “personhood” and whether human embryos are persons. Issues applies a natural law perspective to some of the most controversial debates in contemporary bioethics at the beginning and end of life: research on human embryos, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, the withdrawal of tube-feeding from patients in a “persistent vegetative state,” and the definition of death. The text is completed by appendices featuring personal statements by Alfonso Gómez-Lobo on the status of the human embryo and on the definition and determination of death.

Download or read book Morality and the Human Goods written by Alfonso Gomez-Lobo and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise and accessible introduction to natural law ethics, this book introduces readers to the mainstream tradition of Western moral philosophy. Building on philosophers from Plato through Aquinas to John Finnis, Alfonso Gómez-Lobo links morality to the protection of basic human goods--life, family, friendship, work and play, the experience of beauty, knowledge, and integrity--elements essential to a flourishing, happy human life. Gómez-Lobo begins with a discussion of Plato's Crito as an introduction to the practice of moral philosophy, showing that it requires that its participants treat each other as equals and offer rational arguments to persuade each other. He then puts forth a general principle for practical rationality: one should pursue what is good and avoid what is bad. The human goods form the basis for moral norms that provide a standard by which actions can be evaluated: do they support or harm the human goods? He argues that moral norms should be understood as a system of rules whose rationale is the protection and enhancement of human goods. A moral norm that does not enjoin the preservation or enhancement of a specific good is unjustifiable. Shifting to a case study approach, Gómez-Lobo applies these principles to a discussion of abortion and euthanasia. The book ends with a brief treatment of rival positions, including utilitarianism and libertarianism, and of conscience as our ultimate moral guide. Written as an introductory text for students of ethics and natural law, Morality and the Human Goods makes arguments consistent with Catholic teaching but is not based on theological considerations. The work falls squarely within the field of philosophical ethics and will be of interest to readers of any background.

Download or read book The Moral Status of Persons written by Gerhold K. Becker and published by Rodopi. This book was released on 2000 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The advances in molecular biology and genetics, medicine and neurosciences, in ethology and environmental studies have put the concept of the person firmly on the philosophical agenda. Whereas earlier times seemed to have a clear understanding about the moral implications of personhood and its boundaries, today there is little consensus on such matters. Whether a patient in the last stages of Alzheimer's disease is still a person, or whether a human embryo is already a person are highly contentious issues. This book tackles the issue of personhood and its moral implications head-on. The thirteen essays are representative of the major strands in the current bioethical debate and offer new insights into humanity's moral standing, its foundations, and its implications for social interaction. While most of the essays approach the issue by drawing on the rich intellectual tradition of the West, others offer a cross-cultural perspective and make available for ethical consideration the philosophical resources and the wisdom of the East. The contributors to this book are highly recognized philosophers, ethicists, theologians, and professionals in health care and medicine from East Asia (China, Japan), Europe, and North America. The first part of the book probes the foundations of personhood. Examining critically the main theories on personhood in contemporary philosophy, the authors offer alternatives that better respond to contemporary challenges and their implications for bioethics. The focus of the second part is firmly on the Confucian relational concept of the person and on the social constitution of personhood in traditional Japanese culture. While the essays challenge the individualistic features of personhood in the Western tradition, they lay the foundations for a richer concept that holds great promise for the resolution of moral dilemmas in modern medicine and health care. The third part of the book enters into a dialogue with the Christian tradition and draws on its spiritual heritage in the search for answers to the contemporary challenges to human dignity and value. Its focus is on the Catholic social thought and Lutheran theology. The fourth part addresses the moral status of persons in view of specific issues such as the effects of brain injury, gene therapy, and human cloning on personhood. It extends the scope of research beyond human beings and inquires also into the moral status of animals.

Download or read book What It Means to Be Human written by O. Carter Snead and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Book of the Year A First Things Books for Christmas Selection Winner of the Expanded Reason Award “This important work of moral philosophy argues that we are, first and foremost, embodied beings, and that public policy must recognize the limits and gifts that this entails.” —Wall Street Journal The natural limits of the human body make us vulnerable and dependent on others. Yet law and policy concerning biomedical research and the practice of medicine frequently disregard these stubborn facts. What It Means to Be Human makes the case for a new paradigm, one that better reflects the gifts and challenges of being human. O. Carter Snead proposes a framework for public bioethics rooted in a vision of human identity and flourishing that supports those who are profoundly vulnerable and dependent—children, the disabled, and the elderly. He addresses three complex public matters: abortion, assisted reproductive technology, and end-of-life decisions. Avoiding typical dichotomies of conservative-liberal and secular-religious, Snead recasts debates within his framework of embodiment and dependence. He concludes that if the law is built on premises that reflect our lived experience, it will provide support for the vulnerable. “This remarkable and insightful account of contemporary public bioethics and its individualist assumptions is indispensable reading for anyone with bioethical concerns.” —Alasdair MacIntyre, author of After Virtue “A brilliantly insightful book about how American law has enshrined individual autonomy as the highest moral good...Highly thought-provoking.” —Francis Fukuyama, author of Identity

Download or read book Global Bioethics and Human Rights written by Wanda Teays and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ethical issues we face in health care, justice, and human rights extend beyond national boundaries—they are global and cross-cultural in scope. Editors Wanda Teays and Alison Dundes Renteln have assembled the works of a diverse interdisciplinary and international team of bioethics experts into a comprehensive, innovative, and accessible resource. Following a consideration of theoretical frameworks that inform a global bioethics, units on human rights, life and death, and public health form an in-depth look at contemporary issues in the field. Each unit includes cutting edge analyses and thought-provoking case studies, as well as discussion prompts. Topics range from torture and lethal injection to euthanasia, abortion, medical tourism, vulnerable human subjects, to health equity, vaccination programs, mental health, the ethics of surrogacy, and more. The second edition includes new essays on • bioethics and environmental ethics • medical tourism • torture and solitary confinement • institutional review boards • pediatric genomics • the abortion debate • the ethics of surrogacy • issues in global health ethics • revirgination surgery • global mental health • feminist perspectives on global aging • ethical considerations for vaccination programs

Download or read book Human Dignity and Bioethics written by and published by U.S. Independent Agencies and Commissions. This book was released on 2008 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains a collection of essays exploring human dignity and bioethics, a concept crucial to today's discourse in law and ethics in general and in bioethics in particular.

Download or read book Disputes in Bioethics written by Christopher Kaczor and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disputes in Bioethics tackles some of the most debated questions in contemporary scholarship about the beginning and end of life. This collection of essays takes up questions about the dawn of human life, including: Should we make children with three (or more) parents? Is it better never to have been born? and Why should the baby live? This volume also asks about the dusk of human life: Is "death with dignity" a dangerous euphemism? Should euthanasia be permitted for children? Does assisted suicide harm those who do not choose to die? Still other questions are asked concerning recent views that health care professionals should not have a right to conscientiously object to legal and accepted medical practices. Finally, the book addresses questions about separating conjoined twins as well as the issue of whether the species of an individual makes a difference for the individual’s moral status. Christopher Kaczor critiques some of the most recent and influential positions in bioethics, while eschewing both consequentialism and principalism. Rooted in the Catholic principle that faith and reason are harmonious, this book shows how Catholic bioethical teaching is rationally defensible in terms that people of good will, secular or religious, can accept. Proceeding from a natural law perspective, Kaczor defends the inherent dignity of all human beings and argues that they merit the protection of their basic human goods because of that inherent dignity. Philosophers interested in applied ethics, as well as students and professors of law, will profit from reading Disputes in Bioethics. The book aims to be both philosophically sophisticated and accessible for students and experienced researchers alike.

Download or read book Bioethics Law and Human Life Issues written by D. Brian Scarnecchia and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2010-06-02 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioethics, Law, and Human Life Issues: A Catholic Perspective on Marriage, Family, Contraception, Abortion, Reproductive Technology, and Death and Dying draws on the Magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church to outline a Catholic response to a host of controversial issues related to human life. Scarnecchia lays out a Catholic moral theology based on the writings of Pope John Paul II and Thomas Aquinas, and he then applies those Christian moral principles to today's most contentious ethical issues, including reproductive technology, embryo adoption, contraception, abortion, family and same-sex marriage, and euthanasia and assisted suicide. This review of Catholic moral principles brings together an in-depth consideration of the central human life issues of our day with abundant reference to the Church's social teaching and to contrasting positions of today's leading ethicists.

Download or read book Good Ethics and Bad Choices written by Jennifer S. Blumenthal-Barby and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-08-03 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of how findings in behavioral economics challenge fundamental assumptions of medical ethics, integrating the latest research in both fields. Bioethicists have long argued for rational persuasion to help patients with medical decisions. But the findings of behavioral economics—popularized in Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge and other books—show that arguments depending on rational thinking are unlikely to be successful and even that the idea of purely rational persuasion may be a fiction. In Good Ethics and Bad Choices, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby examines how behavioral economics challenges some of the most fundamental tenets of medical ethics. She not only integrates the latest research from both fields but also provides examples of how physicians apply concepts of behavioral economics in practice. Blumenthal-Barby analyzes ethical issues raised by “nudging” patient decision making and argues that the practice can improve patient decisions, prevent harm, and perhaps enhance autonomy. She then offers a more detailed ethical analysis of further questions that arise, including whether nudging amounts to manipulation, to what extent and at what point these techniques should be used, when and how their use would be wrong, and whether transparency about their use is required. She provides a snapshot of nudging “in the weeds,” reporting on practices she observed in clinical settings including psychiatry, pediatric critical care, and oncology. Warning that there is no “single, simple account of the ethics of nudging,” Blumenthal-Barby offers a qualified defense, arguing that a nudge can be justified in part by the extent to which it makes patients better off.

Download or read book To Relieve the Human Condition written by Gerald P. McKenny and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that standard forms of bioethics support the technological utopianism of medicine. Puts forth an alternative agenda arguing that the task of bioethics is to explore the moral significance of the body as it is expressed in the discourse and practice of moral and religious traditions.

Download or read book Understanding Human Goods written by Timothy D. J. Chappell and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timothy Chappell surveys the central topics in philosophy, providing an historical and philosophical map of the major themes.

Download or read book Bioethics written by Bruce Jennings and published by MacMillan Reference Library. This book was released on 2014 with total page 3335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Principles of Biomedical Ethics written by James F. Childress and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1983 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Human Dignity in Bioethics and Law written by Charles Foster and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dignity is often denounced as hopelessly amorphous or incurably theological: as feel-good philosophical window-dressing, or as the name given to whatever principles give you the answer that you think is right. This is wrong, says Charles Foster: dignity is not only an essential principle in bioethics and law; it is really the only principle. In this ambitious, paradigm-shattering but highly readable book, he argues that dignity is the only sustainable Theory of Everything in bioethics. For most problems in contemporary bioethics, existing principles such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice and professional probity can do a reasonably workmanlike job if they are all allowed to contribute appropriately. But these are second order principles, each of which traces its origins back to dignity. And when one gets to the frontiers of bioethics (such as human enhancement), dignity is the only conceivable language with which to describe and analyse the strange conceptual creatures found there. Drawing on clinical, anthropological, philosophical and legal insights, Foster provides a new lexicon and grammar of that language which is essential reading for anyone wanting to travel in the outlandish territories of bioethics, and strongly recommended for anyone wanting to travel comfortably anywhere in bioethics or medical law.

Download or read book Human Dignity in Bioethics written by Stephen Dilley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a collection of essays that rigorously examine the concept of human dignity from its metaphysical foundations to its polemical deployment in bioethical controversies. It explores the source and meaning of human dignity, examines the legitimacy of the concept of dignity in documents by international political bodies, and looks at the rhetoric of human dignity in specific controversies: embryonic stem cell research, abortion, human-animal chimeras, euthanasia and palliative care, psychotropic drugs, and assisted reproductive technologies.

Download or read book Rethinking Health Care Ethics written by Stephen Scher and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-02 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ​The goal of this open access book is to develop an approach to clinical health care ethics that is more accessible to, and usable by, health professionals than the now-dominant approaches that focus, for example, on the application of ethical principles. The book elaborates the view that health professionals have the emotional and intellectual resources to discuss and address ethical issues in clinical health care without needing to rely on the expertise of bioethicists. The early chapters review the history of bioethics and explain how academics from outside health care came to dominate the field of health care ethics, both in professional schools and in clinical health care. The middle chapters elaborate a series of concepts, drawn from philosophy and the social sciences, that set the stage for developing a framework that builds upon the individual moral experience of health professionals, that explains the discontinuities between the demands of bioethics and the experience and perceptions of health professionals, and that enables the articulation of a full theory of clinical ethics with clinicians themselves as the foundation. Against that background, the first of three chapters on professional education presents a general framework for teaching clinical ethics; the second discusses how to integrate ethics into formal health care curricula; and the third addresses the opportunities for teaching available in clinical settings. The final chapter, "Empowering Clinicians", brings together the various dimensions of the argument and anticipates potential questions about the framework developed in earlier chapters.

Download or read book The Foundations of Socratic Ethics written by Alfonso Gómez-Lobo and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative new work, Alfonso Gomez-Lobo proposes that the earliest Platonic writings, in particular Apology, Crito, and sections of Gorgias, contain an underlying moral philosophy that can be attributed to Socrates with some degree of assurance. His aim is to show that Socratic moral philosophy is a reasonably systematic construction generated by a small number of principles or axioms.