The Ethics of Bioethics: Mapping the Moral Landscape

by Lisa A. Eckenwiler, Felicia G. Cohn

Overview

Stem cell research. Drug company influence. Abortion. Contraception. Long-term and end-of-life care. Human participants research. Informed consent. The list of ethical issues in science, medicine, and public health is long and continually growing. These complex issues pose a daunting task for professionals in the expanding field of bioethics. But what of the practice of bioethics itself? What issues do ethicists and bioethicists confront in their efforts to facilitate sound moral reasoning and judgment in a variety of venues? Are those immersed in the field capable of making the right decisions? How and why do they face moral challenge—and even compromise—as ethicists? What values should guide them?

In The Ethics of Bioethics, Lisa A. Eckenwiler and Felicia G. Cohn tackle these questions head on, bringing together notable medical ethicists and people outside the discipline to discuss common criticisms, the field's inherent tensions, and efforts to assign values and assess success. Through twenty-five lively essays examining the field's history and trends, shortcomings and strengths, and the political and policy interplay within the bioethical realm, this comprehensive book begins a much-needed critical and constructive discussion of the moral landscape of bioethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801886126
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Lisa A. Eckenwiler is an associate professor of philosophy and director of health care ethics at the George Mason University Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics.

Felicia G. Cohn is an associate professor and the director of medical ethics at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Medical Center.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors
Foreword, by Jonathan D. Moreno
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Situating Bioethics: Where Have We Benn? Where Should We Be Going?
1. Analyzing Pandora's Box: The History of Bioethics
2. A History of Codes of Ethics for Bioethicists
Part II: Bioethics and the Problems of Expertise
3. The Tyranny of Expertise
4. Trusting Bioethicists
Part III: Contributions and Conflicts: Policy and Politics
5. Intellectual Capital and Voting Booth Bioethics: A Contemporary Historical Critique
6. Bioethics and Society: From the Ivory Tower to the State House
7. Democratic Ideals and Bioethics Commissions: The Problem of Expertise in a Egalitarian Society
8. The Endarkenment
9. Left Bias in Academic Bioethics: Three Dogmas
10. Bioethics as Politics: A Critical Reassessment
11. ASBH and Moral Tolerance
12. Bioethics as Activism
Part IV: Contributions and Conflicts: Consultation in the Clinic and the Corporate World
13. Ethics on the Inside?
14. Strategic Disclosure Requirements and the Ethics of Bioethics
15. Ties without Tethers: Bioethics Corporate Relations in the AbioCor Artificial Heart Trial
Part V: Defining Values and Obligations
16. Of Courage, Honor, and Integrity
17. I Want You: Notes toward a Theory of Hospitality
18. Learning to Listen: Second-Order Moral Perception and the Work of Bioethics
19. Global Health Inequalities and Bioethics
20. White Normativity in U.S. Bioethics: A Call and Method for More Pluralist and Democratic Standards and Policies
21. Mentoring in Bioethics: Possibilities and Problems
22. Obligations to Fellow and Future Bioethicists: Publication
Part VI: Assessing Bioethics and Bioethicists
23. The Virtue of Attacking the Bioethicist
24. Social Moral Epistemology and the Role of Bioethicists
25. The Glass House: Assessing Bioethics
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Why have the values and influence of the scientific enterprise and the medical profession degenerated just as bioethics has ascended to near-disciplinary status? Organizational and political ineptitude, genetic obsessiveness, and ahistorical attitudes, as well as unimaginative prophesizing—all these challenges to the field are discussed in this book, pointing to the need for a deeper bioethics or none at all.
—Peter J. Whitehouse, Case Western Reserve University

The Ethics of Bioethics is a milestone in the field of bioethics. It brings together all the right people, asking all the right questions and proposing answers to meet the challenges of our time. Anyone who is paid to do work in bioethics—and, for that matter, anyone who takes bioethical inquiry seriously—will need to read this book and engage the issues it raises.
—Matthew Wynia, Past-President, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities

Matthew Wynia

The Ethics of Bioethics is a milestone in the field of bioethics. It brings together all the right people, asking all the right questions and proposing answers to meet the challenges of our time. Anyone who is paid to do work in bioethics—and, for that matter, anyone who takes bioethical inquiry seriously—will need to read this book and engage the issues it raises.

Peter J. Whitehouse

Why have the values and influence of the scientific enterprise and the medical profession degenerated just as bioethics has ascended to near-disciplinary status? Organizational and political ineptitude, genetic obsessiveness, and ahistorical attitudes, as well as unimaginative prophesizing -- all these challenges to the field are discussed in this book, pointing to the need for a deeper bioethics or none at all.

— Peter J. Whitehouse, Case Western Reserve University

Editorial Reviews

Without question, The Ethics of Bioethics is a must-read for all persons involved with bioethics. This well-written, well-organized paperback seeks to analyze the many facets of ethics in the field of bioethics.
—JAMA

The editors have compiled a cogent collection that signifies an important contribution to bioethics that is reflective of the complexity and importance of the field.
—Mark Dietrich Tschaepe, Metapsychology

Anyone who takes bioethics seriously will find much to applaud.
—William E. Stempsey, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics

The strength of the volume is not that it answers questions of the ethics of bioethics, but rather that it offers an accurate portrait of the diverse views of the field.
—Lisa Rasmussen, American Journal of Bioethics

The Ethics of Bioethics is a sterling contribution to the ongoing debate in bioethics regarding who we are, what we do, and what we are becoming. I would strongly encourage its use for educators in bioethics who want their students to engage in these ongoing dialogues.
—Kayhan Parsi, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Eckenwiler and Cohn have done the evolving field of bioethics a great service by assembling 25 thoughtful and erudite essays into this excellent book . . . It is provocative and stimulating and may help change your views about what is most important for medicine in the 21st century.
—Barry Morenz, MD, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

From the Publisher

Anyone who takes bioethics seriously will find much to applaud.

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - William E. Stempsey

The editors have compiled a cogent collection that signifies an important contribution to bioethics that is reflective of the complexity and importance of the field.

Metapsychology - Mark Dietrich Tschaepe

Eckenwiler and Cohn have done the evolving field of bioethics a great service by assembling 25 thoughtful and erudite essays into this excellent book... It is provocative and stimulating and may help change your views about what is most important for medicine in the 21st century.

— Barry Morenz, MD

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

The Ethics of Bioethics is a sterling contribution to the ongoing debate in bioethics regarding who we are, what we do, and what we are becoming. I would strongly encourage its use for educators in bioethics who want their students to engage in these ongoing dialogues.

— Kayhan Parsi

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

The strength of the volume is not that it answers questions of the ethics of bioethics, but rather that it offers an accurate portrait of the diverse views of the field.

— Lisa Rasmussen

American Journal of Bioethics

Anyone who takes bioethics seriously will find much to applaud.

— William E. Stempsey

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics

The editors have compiled a cogent collection that signifies an important contribution to bioethics that is reflective of the complexity and importance of the field.

— Mark Dietrich Tschaepe

Metapsychology

The strength of the volume is not that it answers questions of the ethics of bioethics, but rather that it offers an accurate portrait of the diverse views of the field.

American Journal of Bioethics - Lisa Rasmussen

The Ethics of Bioethics is a sterling contribution to the ongoing debate in bioethics regarding who we are, what we do, and what we are becoming. I would strongly encourage its use for educators in bioethics who want their students to engage in these ongoing dialogues.

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics - Kayhan Parsi

Without question, The Ethics of Bioethics is a must-read for all persons involved with bioethics. This well-written, well-organized paperback seeks to analyze the many facets of ethics in the field of bioethics.

JAMA

Eckenwiler and Cohn have done the evolving field of bioethics a great service by assembling 25 thoughtful and erudite essays into this excellent book . . . It is provocative and stimulating and may help change your views about what is most important for medicine in the 21st century.

Journal of Clinical Psychiatry - Barry Morenz