In the last three decades, bioethics has matured into a field of study with several areas of concentration, including medical ethics, environmental ethics and more recently, genetic ethics. For reasons related to both the developmental history of the subject and to the poignancy of the problems presented, most textbooks and collections of essays have dealt with only a single area, medical ethics. In fact, to many not in the field, the word bioethics has become synonymous with medical ethics. The aim of this collection of essays, entitled New Dimensions in Bioethics: Science, Ethics and the Formation of Public Policy, is to enlarge this restrictive vision of the field as it is usually studied at universities. By combining essays relevant to medical ethics with companion essays on environmental ethics and genetic ethics, the book emphasizes similarities in the methods of analysis used in diverse bioethical problems, whether dealing with genes, with people or the environment. In this way, New Dimensions in Bioethics: Science, Ethics and the Formation of Public Policy, hopes to contribute to the intellectual unity of the subject and to suggest changes in the way bioethics can be taught and studied at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

Combining the areas of genetics, medicine, and the environment with legal, historical, and policy analysis, this text seeks to broaden the boundaries of discussion on bioethics beyond its traditional categories. The editors (both of Yale U.) note that they intend the book to be used as a supplemental reader on new directions in the field and on its overlaps with policy issues. The 16 contributors are academics, consultants, and policy-makers in a variety of disciplines.
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