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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Life sciences: general issues > Bio-ethics
Shaw addresses the 'ethical turn' in contemporary sociological thinking, by exploring the contribution of sociology and the social sciences to bioethical debates about morality and tissue exchange practices.
The pervasive influence of law on medical practice and clinical bioethics is often noted with a combination of exasperation and lamentation. Physicians and non-physician bioethicists, generally speaking, consider the willingness of courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies to insinuate themselves into clinical practice and medical research to be a distinctly negative aspect of contemporary American society. They are quick to point out that their colleagues in other Western developed nations are not similarly afflicted, and that the situation which obtains elsewhere is highly preferable to the legalization and purported over-regulation of medicine that has taken place in the United States during the last fifty years. In this book I offer a decidedly different perspective. It is, admittedly, not entirely without personal and professional bias. Prior to becoming a fu- time academic, teaching bioethics in the setting of an academic medical center, I was, for nearly 20 years, an attorney specializing in health law. Even after earning a doctorate in philosophy, I was frequently considered to be the "resident lawyer" on the bioethics faculty, much more frequently looked to for my insights on the law than my perspective as one who had formally studied moral philosophy and applied ethics. I note this not out ofa sense of frustration or disappointment, but as confirmation that even among physicians and n- physician bioethicists, there is widespread recognition that the law does have important contributions to make in assessing the practice ofmedicine and the conduct of medical research.
In this thought-provoking and innovative book, Kendra Coulter examines the diversity of work done with, by, and for animals. Interweaving human-animal studies, labor theories and research, and feminist political economy, Coulter develops a unique analysis of the accomplishments, complexities, problems, and possibilities of multispecies and interspecies labor. She fosters a nuanced, multi-faceted approach to labor that takes human and animal well-being seriously, and that challenges readers to not only think deeply and differently about animals and work, but to reflect on the potential for interspecies solidarity. The result is an engaging, expansive, and path-making text.
This book discusses three possible human enhancement paradigms and explores how each involves different values, uses of technology, and different degrees and kinds of ethical concerns. A new framework is advanced that promotes technological innovation that serves the improvement of the human condition in a respectful and sustainable way.
This important book proposes revising the current informed consent protocol for predictive genetic testing to reflect the trend toward patient-centered medicine. Emphasizing the predictive aspect of testing, the author analyzes the state of informed consent procedure in terms of three components: comprehension of risk assessment, disclosure to select appropriate treatment, and voluntariness. The book's revised model revisits these cornerstones, restructuring the consent process to allow for expanded comprehension time, enhanced patient safety, greater patient involvement and autonomy, and reduced chance of coercion by family or others. A comparison of the current and revised versions and case studies showing the new model in real-world applications add extra usefulness to this resource. Included in the coverage: The science behind PGT. Understanding genetic risks and probability. The history of informed consent. Revised model of informed consent: comprehension, disclosure, voluntariness, patient safety. Applications of the model in DTC and pleiotropic genetic testing. Implementation of the revised model, and assessing its effectiveness. A milestone in the bioethics literature, Informed Consent in Predictive Genetic Testing will be of considerable interest to genetic counselors, medical and bioethicists, and public health professionals.
This book addresses the debate usually tagged as being about 'markets in human body parts' which is antagonistically divided into pro-market and anti-market positions. The author provides a set of propositions about how to approach this and shows a way out of the concrete impasse of it. Assumptions about markets and bodies that characterize this debate are analyzed and described while the author argues that these assumptions are in fact constitutive for exchanges of human bodily material - but in unacknowledged ways. It is concluded that what we need is a different analytical approach to better understand the mechanisms at play when organizations exchange organs, tissues and cells for use in transplantation and fertility medicine.
This volume brings together a set of critical essays on the thought of Professor Doctor H. Tristram Engelhardt Junior, Co-Founding Editor of the Philosophy and Medicine book series. Amongst the founders of bioethics, Professor Engelhardt, Jr. looms large. Many of his books and articles have appeared in multiple languages, including Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese. The essays in this book focus critically on a wide swath of his work, in the process elucidating, critiquing, and/or commending the rigor and reach of his thought. This volume compasses analyses of many different aspects of Engelhardt's work, including social and political philosophy, biopolitics, the philosophy of medicine, and bioethics. It brings together internationally known scholars to assess key elements of Engelhardt's work.
Assessing synthetic biology from a societal and ethical perspective is not only a matter of determining possible harms and benefits of synthetic biology applications. Synthetic biology also incorporates a specific technoscientific understanding of its research agenda and its research objects that has philosophical and ethical implications. This edited volume sets out to explore and evaluate these synthetic biology worldviews and it proposes appropriate governance measures. In addition, legal challenges are discussed.
This work sets the stage regarding debates about paternalism and health care for years to come. The anthology is organized around four parts: i) The concept of paternalism and theoretical issues regarding the idea of anti-paternalism, ii) strategies for justifying different forms of paternalism, iii) paternalism in psychiatry and psychotherapy, iv) paternalism and public health, and v) paternalism and reproductive medicine. Medical paternalism was arguably one of the main drivers of debates in medical ethics and has led to a wide acknowledgement of the value of patient autonomy. However, more recent developments in health care, such as the increasing significance of public health measures and the commercialization of medical services, have led to new social circumstances and hence to the need to rethink issues regarding paternalism. This work provides an invaluable source for many scholars and practitioners, since it deals in new and original ways with one of the main and oldest issue in health care ethics.
This book is a critical examination of certain basic issues and themes crucial to understanding how ethics currently interfaces with health care and biomedical research. Beginning with an overview of the field, it proceeds through a delineation of such key notions as trust and uncertainty, dialogue involving talk and listening, the vulnerability of the patient against the asymmetric power of the health professional, along with professional and individual responsibility. It emphasizes several themes fundamental to ethics and health care: (1) the work of ethics requires strict focus on the specific situational understanding of each involved person. (2) Moral issues, at least those intrinsic to each clinical encounter, are presented solely within the contexts of their actual occurrence; therefore, ethics must not only be practical but empirical in its approach. (3) Each particular situation is in its own way imprecise and uncertain and the different types and dimensions of imprecision and uncertainty are critical for everyone involved. (4) Finally, medicine and health care more broadly are governed by the effort to make sense of the healer's experiences with the patient, whose own experiences and interpretations are ingredient to what the healer seeks to understand and eventually treat. In addition to providing a way to develop ethical considerations in clinical life and research projects, the book proposes that narratives provide the finest way to state and grapple with these themes and issues, whether in classrooms or real-life situations. It concludes with a prospective analysis of newly emerging issues presented by and within the new genetics, which, together within a focus on the phenomenon of birth, leads to an clearer understanding of human life.
The UNESCO International Bioethics Committee is an international body that sets standards in the field of bioethics. This collection represents the contributions of the IBC to global bioethics. The IBC is a body of 36 independent experts that follows progress in the life sciences and its applications in order to ensure respect for human dignity and freedom. Currently, some of the topics of the IBC contributions have been discussed in the bioethics literature, mostly journal articles. However, this is a unique contribution by the scholars who developed these universal declarations and reports. The contributors have not only provided a scholarly up to date discussion of their research topics, but as members of the IBC they have also discussed specific practical challenges in the development of such international documents. This book will be suited to academics within bioethics, health care policy and international law.
Behavioral neuroscience encompasses the disciplines of neurobiology and psychology to study mechanisms of behavior. This volume provides a contemporary overview of the current state of how ethics informs behavioral neuroscience research. There is dual emphasis on ethical challenges in experimental animal approaches and in clinical and nonclinical research involving human participants.
The book provides an in-depth discussion on the human nature concept from different perspectives and from different disciplines, analyzing its use in the doping debate and researching its normative overtones. The relation between natural talent and enhanced abilities is scrutinized within a proper conceptual and theoretical framework: is doping to be seen as a factor of the athlete's dehumanization or is it a tool to fulfill his/her aspirations to go faster, higher and stronger? Which characteristics make sports such a peculiar subject of ethical discussion and what are the, both intrinsic and extrinsic, moral dangers and opportunities involved in athletic enhancement? This volume combines fundamental philosophical anthropological reflection with applied ethics and socio-cultural and empirical approaches. Furthermore guidelines will be presented to decision- and policy-makers on local, national and international levels. Zooming in on the intrinsic issue of what is valuable about our homo sapiens biological condition, this volume devotes only scant attention to the specific issue of natural talent and why such talent is appreciated so differently than biotechnological origins of ability. In addition, specific aspects of sports such as its competitive nature and its direct display of bodily prowess provide good reason to single out the issue of natural athletic talent for sustained ethical scrutiny.
This book provides a detailed introduction to the cloning of both plants and animals and discusses the important social, ethical, political, technical, and other issues related to the practice. The history of cloning experiments dates back more than a century, but advances in technology in recent decades have multiplied the potential applications of cloning-and expanded the controversies surrounding these possibilities. Cloning: A Reference Handbook provides an accessible description of the development of plant and animal cloning from the early stages of human civilization to the present day and coherently covers the science and technology involved. It reviews the essential controversies that have arisen about cloning-particularly applications involving human DNA-as researchers have advanced and extended the tools for cloning organisms. Additionally, the book discusses public opinion about cloning and the legislative and administration actions that have been taken with regard to the practice. This single-volume work provides a broad treatment of the subject, going back further in history than is the case with most texts, covering plant cloning and providing a thorough overview of the nature of animal cloning and related issues. Examples of the topics covered include the natural "cloning" processes of regeneration in plants and animals; crucial research breakthroughs on animal cloning by Robert Briggs and Thomas King, John Gurdon, Gail Martin, James Till and Earnest McCulloch, and others; and the laws that regulate which types of cloning are allowed and prohibited in the United States and in other countries. Offers an informed perspective on cloning and its potential applications in everyday life and elsewhere Includes profiles of key individuals and organizations related to the field of cloning, a Perspectives chapter, a chronology of important events in the history of cloning, and a glossary of key terms that strengthen the reader's undersatanding of the topic Supplies the necessary historical background and context for readers to understand why cloning of both plants and animals is of great importance-and why cloning technology is even more critical when it involves human beings
The central question of this book is whether or not particular cell entities of human origin ought to be considered human beings. The answer is crucial for making moral decisions for or against research and experimentation. Experts in the field discuss the production of embryonic-like pluripotent stem cells by altered nuclear transfer, parthenogenesis and reprogramming of adult somatic cells. They thoroughly analyse the biological and moral status of different cell entities, such as human stem cells, embryos and human-animal hybrid embryos, and make a decisive step towards establishing final criteria for what constitutes a human being. The topic is challenging in nature and of broad interest to all those concerned with current bioethical thought on embryonic human life and its implications for society.
Since World War II, the biological and technological have been fusing and merging in new ways, resulting in the loss of a clear distinction between the two. This entanglement of biology with technology isn't new, but the pervasiveness of that integration is staggering, as is the speed at which the two have been merging in recent decades. As this process permeates more of everyday life, the urgent necessity arises to rethink both biology and technology. Indeed, the human body can no longer be regarded either as a bounded entity or as a naturally given and distinct part of an unquestioned whole. Bits of Life assumes a posthuman definition of the body. It is grounded in questions about today's biocultures, which pertain neither to humanist bodily integrity nor to the anthropological assumption that human bodies are the only ones that matter. Editors Anneke Smelik and Nina Lykke aid in mapping changes and transformations and in striking a middle road between the metaphor and the material. In exploring current reconfigurations of bodies and embodied subjects, the contributors pursue a technophilic, yet critical, path while articulating new and thoroughly appraised ethical standards.
This volume focuses on the ethical and philosophical issues that arise in an aging society, and the implications of these issues for healthcare and social policy. After a brief overview of biomedicine's changing approach of ageing and longevity and of the new expectations that these changes generate, various ethical, social, and policy issues that surround aging and longevity are discussed. First, the images and social meanings of aging and old age in our society are explored, including their normative dimensions and implications for policy. Next, ethical issues in the care for frail elderly are discussed, as well as notion of good care and end-of-life decisions. Finally, the ethical and social implications of emerging possibilities for anti-aging and lifespan extension are considered. The book concludes with an overview of the relevance of the issues discussed for policy making on professional, national and international levels.
Asia is by far the largest continent in the world in terms of area with population exceeding 3.5 billion and has dozens of cultures, religions, languages and ethnic groups. As a result of its highly varied political systems, Asia also spawns a wide variety of health care systems including mental health care systems, often based on historical roots and at times colonial heritages. The people who suffer from mental or neurological disorders in the continent form a vulnerable section of society and often face stigma, discrimination and marginalization in all societies, and this increases the likelihood that their human rights will be violated This book tackles the issue of mental health legislation in South Asia. The first of its kind, it addresses an issue that is necessary for protecting the rights of people with mental disorders and serves as an essential text for reinforcing mental health policy in South Asia. It is a timely addition to our global understanding of mental health and how different regions address it.
There is a growing crisis in scientific research characterized by failures to reproduce experimental results, fraud, lack of innovation, and burn-out. In Science and Christian Ethics, Paul Scherz traces these problems to the drive by governments and business to make scientists into competitive entrepreneurs who use their research results to stimulate economic growth. The result is a competitive environment aimed at commodifying the world. In order to confront this problem of character, Scherz examines the alternative Aristotelian and Stoic models of reforming character, found in the works of Alasdair MacIntyre and Michel Foucault. Against many prominent virtue ethicists, he argues that what individual scientists need is a regime of spiritual exercises, such as those found in Stoicism as it was adopted by Christianity, in order to refocus on the good of truth in the face of institutional pressure. His book illuminates pressing issues in research ethics, moral education, and anthropology.
Synthetic biology is becoming one of the most dynamic new fields of biology, with the potential to revolutionize the way we do biotechnology today. By applying the toolbox of engineering disciplines to biology, a whole set of potential applications become possible ranging very widely across scientific and engineering disciplines. Some of the potential benefits of synthetic biology, such as the development of low-cost drugs or the production of chemicals and energy by engineered bacteria are enormous. There are, however, also potential and perceived risks due to deliberate or accidental damage. Also, ethical issues of synthetic biology just start being explored, with hardly any ethicists specifically focusing on the area of synthetic biology. This book will be the first of its kind focusing particularly on the safety, security and ethical concerns and other relevant societal aspects of this new emerging field. The foreseen impact of this book will be to stimulate a debate on these societal issues at an early stage. Past experiences, especially in the field of GM-crops and stem cells, have shown the importance of an early societal debate. The community and informed stakeholders recognize this need, but up to now discussions are fragmentary. This book will be the first comprehensive overview on relevant societal issues of synthetic biology, setting the scene for further important discussions within the scientific community and with civil society.
Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book attempts to answer these complex questions. It also breaks down the cognitive-linguistic components that comprise the judgment of quality, including description, evaluation, and valuations, and applies them to issues specific to individuals with chronic medical illness. In this context, quality/QoL assessment becomes an essential contributor to ethical practice, a critical step towards improving the nature of social interactions. The author considers linear, non-linear, and complexity-based models in analyzing key methodology and content issues in health-related QoL assessment. This book is certain to stimulate debate in the research and scientific communities. Its forward-looking perspective takes great strides toward promoting a common cognitive-linguistic model of how the judgment of quality occurs, thereby contributing important conceptual and empirical tools to its varied applications, including QoL assessment.
Public policy surrounding the hotly debated issue of physician-assisted suicide is examined in detail. You'll find an analysis of the current legal standing and practice of physician-assisted suicide in several countries. Authors discuss the ethical principles underlying its legal and professional regulation. Personal narratives provide important first-hand accounts from professionals who have been involved in end-of-life issues for many years.
This anthology of essays presents a sample of studies from recent philosophy of medicine addressing issues which attempt to answer very general (interdependent) questions: (a) what is a disease and what is health? (b) How do we (causally) explain diseases? (c) And how do we distinguish diseases, i.e. define classes of diseases and recognize that an instance X of disease belongs to a given class B? (d) How do we assess and choose cure/ therapy? The book is divided into three sections: classification, disease and evidence. In general, attention is focused on statistics in medicine and epidemiology, issues in psychiatry and connecting medicine with evolutionary biology and genetics. Many authors position the theories that they address within their historical contexts. The nature of health and disease will be addressed in several essays that also touch upon very general questions about the definition of medicine and its status.Several chapters scrutinize classification because of its centrality within philosophical problems raised by medicine and its core position in the philosophical questioning of psychiatry. Specificities of medical explanation have recently come under a new light, particularly because of the rise of statistical methods and several chapters investigate these methods in specific contexts such as epidemiology or meta-analysis of random testing. Taken together this collection addresses the question of how we gather, use and assess evidence for various medical theories. The rich assortment of disciplines featured also includes epidemiology, parasitology and public health, while technical aspects such as the application of game theory to medical research and the misuse of the DSM in forensic psychiatry are also given an airing. The book addresses more than the construction of medical knowledge, however, adding cogent appraisal of the processes of decision making in medicine and the protocols used to justify therapeutic choices."
How many citizens take part in moral and political decisions concerning the results obtained by the contemporary life sciences? Should they blindly follow skilled demagogues or false and deceptive leaders? Should they adhere to the voice of the majority, or should they take a different decisional path? Deliberative democracy answers these questions, but what is deliberative democracy? Can we really deliberate if we are completely ignorant of the relevant issue? What about ethical or political expertise, is it strictly necessary? Finally, and most significantly, can a deliberative process take place if we ignore the techniques governing it; that is, the techniques required to be minimally skilled in rational argumentation? Giovanni Boniolo goes back to the historical and theoretical foundations of deliberation showing us, with some irony, that deliberation is a matter of competence, and not just a matter of a right to decide. His conclusion might not delight everyone: "anyone who is not sufficiently acquainted with the subject matter or lacks the sufficient deliberative competence ought not be admitted to deliberative discussions. This restriction makes both good deliberation and a proper deliberative democracy possible, otherwise debate degenerates into demagogy and hypocrisy".
This book summarizes the efforts and results of the first international Ifgene conference on presuppositions in science and expectations in society with respect to genetic engineering which was held at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland, October 2-5, 1996. The Goetheanum provided a unique opportunity to gather people from diverse disciplines who have opposing attitudes on modern science and technology. It is due to this venue, among other things, that the participants were able to develop an open, power-free dialogue and could focus more on judgement-forming than a polarizing debate. This Ifgene conference could not have happened without the financial support from many private individuals and the following organisations listed in no particular order: Fetzer Foundation; Stichting Triodos; Evidenzgesellschaft; Mahle Stiftung GmbH; Gemeinnlitzige Treuhandstelle e. Y. Bochum; Initiative gegen 'Bioethik'; Verband fur anthroposophische Heilpadagogik - CHi Verband flir anthroposophische Heilpadagogik, Sozialtherapie und Sozialarbeit e. Y. - D; Stichting ter bevordering van de Heilpaeda- gogie; Iona Stichting; Antroposofische Vereniging in Nederland; Stichting Klaverblad; Swissair & Crossair; The Rudolf Steiner Association; The Welcome Association; Anthro- posophische Gesellschaft in Deutschland; Helixor Heilmittel GmbH & Co; Goethea- num Dornach; Verein flir anthroposophisches Heilwesen e. Y. - D; The Oakdale Trust; Unilever Nederland BV; NV Verenigde Bedrijven Nutricia; Migros-Genossenschafts- Bund; Ministerie van Landbouw, Natuur en Visserij; CIBA; Stichting Elise Mathilde Fonds; Anthroposophic Society Australia; Therexsys; COOP Schweiz and selected speakers (G. Stotzky - USA, H. A. de Boer - NL, J. Girard-Bascou - F, P. G. |
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