Carolyn M. Mazure
"With remarkable clarity, Judge Schaller identifies the pressing issues at the interface of law and biotechnology. He illustrates convincingly that the use of litigation to resolve ethical concerns raised by the development of science, medicine and technology should be the method of last resort, and that the outcome of judicial decision-making has a societal impact far beyond any single case. Moreover, Judge Schaller provides an expert view of the parameters within which contemporary law operates while capturing the complex human experiences engendered in model cases. This work is a compelling and critical guide to understanding the integration of bioethics and law."
John J. Paris
"The dominant role of law in American bioethics makes it necessary to understand how courts function. Barry Schaller's wealth of experience as a trial and appellate judge enables him to explain the arcane and sometimes mysterious ways in which courts transform ethical issues into a legal context. His book is an invaluable resource for those who seek to understand public policy and the interaction of law, medicine and ethics."
Bruce Jennings
"How should the courts shape bioethics and biotechnology policy? Are the concepts of the law and the institutional rules of judicial decision-making adequate to meet the social, economic, and ethical changes that medicine and the life sciences pose? In Understanding Bioethics and the Law, the respected jurist Barry R. Schaller provides a lucid and wide-ranging discussion of these fundamental questions. This important work covers the entire field of bioethics—from end-of-life care and clinical research to assisted reproduction and human cloning. It will both inform general readers and challenge the assumptions of specialists."
Robert J. Levine
"In this book, a distinguished jurist considers the effects of litigation on bioethics at the levels of public policy development and of ethical decision-making in particular cases. He argues persuasively that at both levels, intervention by the courts has had some most unfortunate consequences. Satisfactory ethical decision-making is, in general, characterized by the creation of consensus, by accommodation of the needs and interests of the concerned parties. The courts, by contrast, are designed to determine the winners and the losers of disputes. Barry Schaller makes his well-researched and carefully constructed arguments easily accessible to a general readership."
