Product Description

This best-selling anthology of readings with case studies provides insightful and comprehensive treatment of ethical issues in medicine. Appropriate for courses taught in philosophy departments as well as in schools on medicine and nursing, the collection covers provocative topics such as conflicts of interest in medicine, advance directives, physician-assisted suicide, and the rationing of health care. The effective pedagogical features include chapter introductions, argument sketches, explanations of medical terms, headnotes, and annotated bibliographies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #349638 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

From the Publisher
PAPERBACK: Now in paperback for the first time.
40% NEW: 43 of the 108 selections are new, or 40% new. There are seven new sections: The Practice of Medicine in a Multicultural Society, The Role of the Family, The Supreme Court and Physician-Assisted Suicide, Gamete Donation and Surrogacy, Cloning, Managed Care and Social Justice, and International Models and Perspectives.
COMPREHENSIVE: Readings are characterized by high-quality analysis and clarity of writing and reflect diverse viewpoints on the leading issues in biomedical ethics.
INTRODUCTIONS: Introductions explicitly identify the central issues of each chapter along with various positions and arguments on those issues. Biographical and argument sketches precede each selection and annotated bibliographies follow each chapter.
COMPING GUIDELINE: Comp this heavy-duty biomedical ethics anthology to Medical Ethics courses in Philosophy Departments AND in Schools of Medicine and Nursing. Often the most recent book is what professors will use since medical ethics changes so rapidly nowadays. Mappes/DeGrazia is 672 pages of readings vs. 384 pages for Pence, Classic Works in Medical Ethics, a reader, and 468 pages for Pence, Classic Cases in Medical Ethics, a collection of case studies.
BOOK'S POSITION: Best-selling anthology of readings with case studies; provides insightful and comprehensive treatment of ethical issues in medicine.

About the Author
Thomas A. Mappes holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Dayton and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University. He is professor of philosophy at Frostburg State University, where he has taught since 1973. He is the coeditor (with Jane S. Zembaty) of Social Ethics: Morality and Social Policy (McGraw-Hill, 4/e, 1992) and his published work appears in journals such as American Philosophical Quarterly and Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. In 1985, the Frostburg State University Foundation presented him with the Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching.

David DeGrazia earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.St. from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. from Gerogetown University, each in philosophy. He has been teaching philosophy and biomedical ethics at George Washington University since 1989. He is the author of Taking Animals Seriously (Cambridge University Press) and of articles published in such journals as Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Public Affairs Quarterly, History of Philosophy Quarterly, and Southern Journal of Philosophy.

Customer Reviews

Well worth the read.
This is an excellent book. It is well balanced and avoids many of the pitfalls of ethics that can catch many other writers. I read this as part of an undergraduate course in Medical Ethics at Marquette University, Milwaukee. This book had an excedllent range on the subject and a good depth in each of the issues. Since this is an evolving topic, I am looking forward to seeing future contributions and editions. My congratulations to the authors.

A Very Good Introduction to Bioethics
Biomedical Ethics is a wonderful introduction to bioethical issues. The authors' styles of writing are (usually) easily understandable, and the inserted case studies make for interesting reading. More of a textbook than a "quickread".