Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Health Care Ethics is a comprehensive study of significant issues affecting health care and the ethics of health care from the perspective of Catholic theology. It aims to help Christian, and especially Catholic, health care professionals solve concrete problems in terms of principles rooted in scripture and tested by individual experience; however, its basis in real medical experience makes this book a valuable resource for anyone with a general interest in health care ethics.
This fifth edition, which includes important contributions by Jean deBlois, C.S.J., considers everyday ethical questions and dilemmas in clinical care and deals more deeply with issues of women's health, mental health, sexual orientation, artificial reproduction, and the new social issues in health care. The authors devote special attention to the various ethical theories currently in use in the United States while clearly presenting a method of ethical decision making based in the Catholic tradition. They discuss the needs of the human person, outlining what it means to be human, both as an individual and as part of a community.
This volume has been significantly updated to include new discussions of recent clinical innovations and theoretical issues that have arisen in the field:
- the Human Genome Project- efforts to control sexual selection of infants- efforts to genetically modify the human genotype and phenotype- the development of palliative care as a medical specialty- the acceptance of non-heart beating persons as organ donors- embryo development and stem cell research- reconstructive and cosmetic surgery- nutrition and obesity- medical mistakes- the negative effects of managed care on the patient-physician relationship- recent papal allocution regarding care of patients in a persistent vegetative state and palliative care for dying patients
Synopsis
Fifth edition of a classic health care ethics textbook from a traditional Catholic perspective, one that remains loyal to official church teaching and Vatican pronouncements. Earlier editions covered the landscape: what is means to be human; the health care profession; the logic of making health care decisions; wide range of issues, including sexuality, abortion, genetic intervention, mental illness, and end-of-life treatment. These books received the imprimatur of the archdiocese. A far cry from David Kelly The fifth edition, a legitimate revision, features several new components:
First, the addition of a co-author, Jean deBlois, helps integrate feminist insights into the text. She's not exactly Gloria Steinem, but this edition contains a deeper appreciation of particular issues surrounding gender and women (viz., responses to rape, health care inequalities, etc.). Second, the authors explore several issues that were little discussed in the mid-1990s: embryo development, stem cell research, medical mistakes, the decrease of patient-physican contact with the advent of managed care, forensic medicine, the proliferation of cosmetic surgery, and nutrition and obesity. Third, the authors address the social setting of health care by examining organizational ethics, the increase of lay people in pastoral ministry, the problems emerging from the growth of Catholic health care corporations, etc. Fourth, during the past several years the Church and Pope John Paul II have offered new guidelines for medical treatment, particularly in regard to artificial nutrition and hydration; the authors wrestle with these. Finally, the authors address the problematic health care system in the United States, and how it fails to meet the common good of society.