Few mental illness treatments are more reviled in the public mind than Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy. However, in reality, ECT is a safe and effective treatment for cases of clinical depression and catatonia that are unresponsive to drug therapy. Also, unlike drugs, ECT has relatively few side effects. The authors argue that it is time for this historically stigmatized procedure to be reevaluated.
The authors make a strong case for greater professional and public attention to the procedure's benefits, offering historical coverage of ECT-related movements, legislation, public and practitioner sentiment and the introduction of competing treatments. This volume will not only garner the interest of mental health professionals, but will call on policy makers and ethicists to examine its arguments.

Patient autonomy is an important concept in the clinical context, but the idea in contemporary bioethics discussions is often muddled. By looking closely at the ideas of Rosseau, Kant, and Mill, Autonomy and Patients' Decisions traces the modern concept of autonomy from its historical roots. Charting the changes in notions of autonomy in Beauchamp and Childress's seminal Principles of Biomedical Ethics to provide an overview of how autonomy has been viewed in the field, Merle Spriggs then identifies the four distinct notions of autonomy being referred to in contemporary discussion. The examination of these notions, especially the "descriptive psychological" account, in relation to case studies provides a clear concept of autonomy, compatible with both consequentialist and rights-based theories of ethics. This book provides a clear understanding of patient autonomy and will prove essential reading for health care professionals, bioethicsts, and philosophers.

Colin Farrelly contemplates the various ethical and social quandaries raised by the genetic revolution. Recent biomedical advances such as genetic screening, gene therapy and genome editing might be used to promote equality of opportunity, reproductive freedom, healthy aging, and the prevention and treatment of disease. But these technologies also raise a host of ethical questions: Is the idea of "genetically engineering" humans a morally objectionable form of eugenics? Should parents undergoing IVF be permitted to screen embryos for the sex of their offspring? Would it be ethical to alter the rate at which humans age, greatly increasing longevity at a time when the human population is already at potentially unsustainable levels? Farrelly applies an original virtue ethics framework to assess these and other challenges posed by the genetic revolution. Chapters discuss virtue ethics in relation to eugenics, infectious and chronic disease, evolutionary biology, epigenetics, happiness, reproductive freedom and longevity. This fresh approach creates a roadmap for thinking ethically about technological progress that will be of practical use to ethicists and scientists for years to come. Accessible in tone and compellingly argued, this book is an ideal introduction for students of bioethics, applied ethics, biomedical sciences, and related courses in philosophy and life sciences.

The distinguished contributors to Confidentiality probe the ethical, legal, and clinical implications of a deceptively simple proposition: Psychoanalytic treatment requires a confidential relationship between analyst and analysand. But how, they ask, should we understand confidentiality in a psychoanalytically meaningful way? Is confidentiality a therapeutic requisite of psychoanalysis, an ethical precept independent of psychoanalytic principles, or simply a legal accommodation with the powers that be?
In wrestling with these questions, the contributors to Confidentiality are responding to a professional, ethical, and political crisis in the field of mental health. Psychotherapy - especially long-term psychotherapy in its psychoanalytic variants - has been undermined by an erosion of personal privacy that has become part of our cultural zeitgeist. The heightened demand for public transparency has forced caregivers from all walks of professional life to submit to increasing bureaucratic regulation.
For the contributors to this collection, the need for confidentiality is centrally involved in the relationship of the psychotherapeutic professions both to society and to the law. No less importantly, the requirement of confidentiality brings a clarifying perspective to debates within the psychotherapeutic literature about the relationship of theory to practice. It thereby provides a framework for shaping a set of ethical principles specifically adapted to the psychotherapeutic, and especially to the psychoanalytic, relationship.
Linking general issues of privacy to the intimate details of psychotherapeutic encounter, Confidentiality will serve as a basic guide to a wide range of professionals, including lawyers, social scientists, philosophers, and, of course, psychotherapists. Therapy patients, policy makers, and the wider public will also find it instructive to know more about the special protected conditions under which one can better come to "know thyself."

Fundamental questions about the morality of pediatric medical research persist despite years of debate and the establishment of strict codes of ethics. Is it ever permissible to use a child as a means to an end? How much authority should parents have over decisions about research involving their children? Should children or their parents be paid for participation in research? Most importantly, how can the twin goals of access to the benefits of clinical research and protection from research risk be reconciled? Promoting more thoughtful attention to the complex ethical problems that arise when research involves children, this fully updated new edition of Ethics and Research with Children presents 14 case studies featuring some of the most challenging and fascinating ethical dilemmas in pediatric research. Each chapter begins with a unique case vignette, followed by rich discussion and incisive ethical analysis. Chapters represent a host of current controversies and are contributed by leading scholars from a variety of disciplines that must grapple with how to best protect children from research risk while driving innovation in the fight against childhood diseases. Chapters end with questions for discussion, providing faculty and students with accessible starting points from which to explore more in depth the thorny issues that are raised. In the final chapter, the editors provide a synthesis and summary that serve as a capstone and companion to the case-based chapters. Unique in its specific focus on research, Ethics and Research with Children provides a balanced and thorough account of the enduring dilemmas that arise when children become research subjects, and will be essential reading for those involved with pediatric research in any context.

The essays in this volume pay tribute to the achievements of Renee C. Fox in the fields of medicine and sociology. Many of the contributors are Fox's colleagues and current and former students from medicine, sociology, nursing, and bioethics. The title -- Society and Medicine -- reflects the leitmotif in Fox's work: her studies of and teaching about the nature of medicine and medical research; the training and work of their practitioners; the interrelationships between medicine and the societies and cultures of which it is a part; and, above all, the moral and spiritual dimensions of the healing arts. The essays reflect the influence of her scholarship and teaching upon their authors, each of whom is a colleague or has studied with her, but this book is not a "festschrift" in the conventional sense. That is, although the essays recognize, and in many cases pay tribute to, her work, Society and Medicine is not a collection about the corpus of Renee Fox's writings and their influence. Rather, the topics addressed are connected, in various ways, to themes Fox has explored over the years in her own journeys in to the field, or the journeys she has inspired others to make.

Whilst advances in reproductive medicine have enabled thousands of couples worldwide to have children, they also raise a plethora of ethical, philosophical and legal questions. This collection of essays by leading international scholars in bioethics, law, philosophy and public health, addresses many of the most difficult and intriguing issues. These include: the nature and scope of the right to reproduce, the meaning of parenthood and family, the significance of genetic connection to parenting, non-traditional families, sperm and egg donation, commercial surrogacy, prenatal genetic testing, reproductive cloning, obligations to children of reproductive technology and post mortem insemination. Legal and Ethical Issues in Human Reproduction is an important contribution to the growing literature on reproductive technology and one that will be of value to scholars, practitioners and students alike.

"Dr. Wakefield sets the record straight. It was not he who showed callous disregard towards vulnerable, sick children with autism. It was the British medical establishment, the General Medical Council, the media and the pharmaceutical industry."-Mary Holland, Esq., co-founder, Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy As Andrew Wakefield states in his prologue, "If autism does not affect your family now, it will. If something does not change-and change soon-this is almost a mathematical certainty. This book affects you also. It is not a parochial look at a trivial medical spat in the United Kingdom, but dispatches from the battlefront in a major confrontation-a struggle against compromise in medicine, corruption of science, and a real and present threat to children in the interests of policy and profit. It is a story of how 'the system' deals with dissent among its doctors and scientists." In the pursuit of possible links between childhood vaccines, intestinal inflammation, and neurologic injury in children, Wakefield lost his job in London's Royal Free Hospital, his country of birth, his career, and his medical license. A recent General Medical Council ruling stated that he was "dishonest, irresponsible and showed callous disregard for the distress and pain of children." Maligned by the medical establishment and mainstream media, Wakefield endeavors to set the record straight in Callous Disregard. While explaining what really happened, he calls out the organizations and individuals that are acting not for the sake of children affected by autism, but in their own self-interests.

"Personalist Bioethics" calls us to reflect on the intimate meaning of human existence and the social environment, going beyond any specific religious perspective and invoking human reason. It advances a metaphysics that is rationally grounded in philosophical anthropology and has a broad range of ethical applications for professors of bioethics, members of ethics committees, bioethics students, and those interested in the field in general, whether in medicine, law, or philosophy. Readers will find a presentation and discussion of the basic contours of personalist bioethics, comparisons of personalism with other philosophical positions, and ethical investigations of particular topics, ranging from genetic engineering to euthanasia. Translated by John A. Di Camillo and Michael J. Miller.

The Abortion Act 1967 may be the most contested law in UK history, sitting on a fault line between the shifting tectonic plates of a rapidly transforming society. While it has survived repeated calls for its reform, with its text barely altered for over five decades, women's experiences of accessing abortion services under it have evolved considerably. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, this book explores how the Abortion Act was given meaning by a diverse cast of actors including women seeking access to services, doctors and service providers, campaigners, judges, lawyers, and policy makers. By adopting an innovative biographical approach to the law, the book shows that the Abortion Act is a 'living law'. Using this historically grounded socio-legal approach, this enlightening book demonstrates how the Abortion Act both shaped and was shaped by a constantly changing society.

As prenatal tests proliferate, the medical and broader communities perceive that such testing is a logical extension of good prenatal care -- it helps parents have healthy babies. But prenatal tests have been criticized by the disability rights community, which contends that advances in science should be directed at improving their lives, not preventing them. Used primarily to decide to abort a fetus that would have been born with mental or physical impairments, prenatal tests arguably reinforce discrimination against and misconceptions about people with disabilities.

In these essays, people on both sides of the issue engage in an honest and occasionally painful debate about prenatal testing and selective abortion. The contributors include both people who live with and people who theorize about disabilities, scholars from the social sciences and humanities, medical geneticists, genetic counselors, physicians, and lawyers. Although the essayists don't arrive at a consensus over the disability community's objections to prenatal testing and its consequences, they do offer recommendations for ameliorating some of the problems associated with the practice.

Truth, Trust and Medicine investigates trust and honesty in medicine. It looks at the doctor-patient relationship, raising questions which disturb notions of patients' autonomy and self-determination, such as withholding information and consent and covert surveillance in care units. It will be of interest to those working in medical ethics and applied philosophy, and a valuable resource for practitioners of medicine.

This Element is a survey of the field of pathographies of mental illness. It explores classic texts in the field as well as other selected contemporary memoirs. In doing so, the reader is introduced to psychiatric information about various mental illnesses through a narrative lens, emphasizing experience. Because clinical research is evidenced-based and aims to produce generalizable knowledge (i.e., trends), the reading of pathographies can complement these findings with practical experiential insights. By pairing psychiatric information with pathographies, certain personal themes become apparent that are different from the empirical trends identified by scientific and medical researchers. Based on the survey presented here, this Element identifies seven such themes, laying the foundation for future research, inquiry, practice, and policy.

This is an attempt to address the ethical issues raised by mental illness and its treatment by focusing on the question of autonomy. The mentally ill may be regarded as non-autonomous by virtue of irrationality, which may result in treatment models which may deny them a voice. As a counter to this, some have moved to the other extreme and argued that the mentally ill must be regarded as fully autonomous in all circumstances, and consequently that all their wishes regarding treatment must be respected. This book examines the ethical consequences of such simplistic approaches approaches towards autonomy and mental illness, and considers the ethical issues raised by specific forms of treatment. It is suggested in conclusion that improvement in the care and treatment of the mentally ill requires not only a fundamental change in social attitudes but also less impoverished conception of autonomy than some of those currently employed.

The COVID-19 crisis has transformed the highly specialized issue of what constitutes reliable medical evidence into a topic of public concern and debate. This book interrogates the assumption that evidence means the same thing to different constituencies and in different contexts. Rather than treating various practices of knowledge as rational or irrational in purely scientific terms, it explains the controversies surrounding COVID-19 by drawing on a theoretical framework that recognizes different types of rationality, and hence plural conceptualizations of evidence. Debates within and beyond the medical establishment on the efficacy of measures such as mandatory face masks are examined in detail, as are various degrees of hesitancy towards vaccines. The authors demonstrate that it is ultimately through narratives that knowledge about medical and other phenomena is communicated to others, enters the public space, and provokes discussion and disagreements. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

As one of the first researchers authorised to observe hearings and access court files at the Court of Protection, Jaime Lindsey offers an original account and analysis of the workings of this court. Using data collected with the approval from the senior judiciary of the Court of Protection and the Ministry of Justice, this innovative book combines empirical data with theoretical and normative analysis. It takes a socio-legal approach to understanding how the Mental Capacity Act operates in practice to achieve access to justice and situates current debates within an international context, showing how other jurisdictions have been guided by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Furthering scholarship across several fields including access to justice, healthcare law and procedural justice theory, this is a timely and pioneering book that argues for a reimagining of the Court of Protection.

Can religious arguments provide a reasonable, justified basis for restrictive (coercive) public policies regarding numerous ethically and politically controversial medical interventions, such as research with human embryos, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or using artificial wombs? With Rawls, we answer negatively. Liberally reasonable policies must address these controversial technologies on the basis of public reasons accessible to all, even if not fully agreeable by all. Further, public democratic deliberation requires participants to construct these policies as citizens who are agnostic with respect to the truth of all comprehensive doctrines, whether secular or religious. The goal of these deliberations is practical, namely, to identify reasonable policy options that reflect fair terms of cooperation in a liberal, pluralistic society. Further, religious advocates may participate in formal policymaking processes as reasonable liberal citizens. Finally, public reason evolves through the deliberative process and all the novel technological challenges medicine generates for bioethics and related public policies.

Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy is an examination of the role of the therapist as ethicist and the ways in which the ethical convictions of both therapist and client contribute to the practical process of psychotherapy. As Psychotherapy strives to establish itself as a 'Profession', practitioners are increasinly focusing on the issue of ethics as they attempt to agree on guidelines and standards for professional practice. Alan Tjeltveit argues that any discussion of professional and ethical practice in psychotherapy is inadequate if carried out in ignorance of or in isolation from traditional ethical theories. He applies this approach to issues such as: * the role of therapy in society * the goals and outcomes of psychotherapy * techniques and practices * the existence and operation of values * the intellectual and social context in which therapy takes place. In the second part of the book, he uses clinical examples and case studies to relate this theoretical discussion to clinical practice. Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy will be welcomed by the growing number of experienced Psychotherapists and post-graduate students who are interested in the increasingly contentious issue of professional ethics.

Series Information:
Professional Ethics

How is the concept of patient care adapting in response to rapid changes in healthcare delivery and advances in medical technology? How are questions of ethical responsibility and social diversity shaping the definitions of healthcare?
In this topical study, scholars in anthropology, nursing theory, law and ethics explore questions involving the changing relationship between patient care and medical ethics. Contributors address issues that challenge the boundaries of patient care, such as:
- HIV-related care and research
- the impact of new reproductive technologies
- preventative healthcare
- technological breakthroughs that are changing personal-caring relationships.
Chapters range from a consideration of the practicalities of nursing and family healthcare to a debate about 'universal human needs' and patients' rights.
This book is a provocative exploration of the ways in which healthcare models are socially constructed. It will be of interest to policy-makers, medical practitioners and administrators, as well as students of sociology, anthropology and social policy.

When the editors of two of the most prominent medical journals in the world--the "New England Journal of Medicine" and the "Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)"--were fired in the same year, under circumstances that ranged from acrimonious to politically sensational, media attention again focused on biomedical publication. The controversy highlighted yet another ethical dimension of scientific research and its publication, topics that have generated intense scrutiny in recent years. As research funding has become scarcer and competition fiercer, with links between scientific discovery and commercial applications increasingly tighter and more lucrative, allegations of misconduct have also increased. Universities and research institutions, notably the NIH, have created offices of scientific integrity and mandated educational programs to investigate such allegations and to train researchers in the highest standards of sound, ethical scientific research.

Focusing on publication ethics as an essential aspect of responsible scientific conduct, "Ethical Issues in Biomedical Publication" examines a variety of troublesome issues, including authorship, peer review, repetitive publication, conflict of interest, and electronic publishing. The contributors include the editors of distinguished biomedical journals (among them, past or present editors of "Academic Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, British Medical Journal, JAMA, " and the "Lancet"), humanities scholars, scientists, lawyers, and a university administrator. Chapters address specific ethical issues and offer recommendations for preventing or solving problems associated with them. The result is a book that will serve as a standard reference for biomedical researchers, authors, editors, and teachers of research ethics.

"Educators, administrators, scientists, editors, and students should all welcome this comprehensive new book. Anne Hudson Jones and Faith McLellan have gathered a veritable who's who in the field of publication ethics for biomedical research. All those with a stake in biomedical research will surely want this volume on their bookshelf."--from the Foreword by Jordan J. Cohen, M.D., President, Association of American Medical Colleges

This Element traces the origins and development of bioethics, the principles and values involved in the discipline, and the roles of justice among these principles and values. The main tasks given to the concept of justice have since the late 1970s been nondiscrimination in research, prioritization in medical practice, and redistribution in healthcare. The Element argues that in a world challenged by planet-wide political and environmental threats this is not sufficient. The nature and meaning of justice has to be rethought. The Element does this by dissecting current bioethical approaches in the light of theories of justice as partly clashing interpretations of equality. The overall findings are twofold. Seen against the background of global concerns, justice in bioethics has become a silent guardian of economic sustainability. Seen against the same background, we should set our aims higher. Justice can, and must, be put to better use than it presently is. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Winner of the NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language Although Roe v. Wade identified abortion as a constitutional right 45 years ago, it still bears stigma-a proverbial scarlet A. Millions of Americans have participated in or benefited from an abortion, but few want to reveal that they have done so. Approximately one in five pregnancies in the US ends in abortion. Why is something so common, which has been legal so long, still a source of shame and secrecy? Why is it so regularly debated by politicians, and so seldom divulged from friend to friend? This book explores the personal stigma that prevents many from sharing their abortion experiences with friends and family in private conversation, and the structural stigma that keeps it that way. In public discussion, both proponents and opponents of abortion's legality tend to focus on extraordinary cases. This tendency keeps the national debate polarized and contentious, and keeps our focus on the cases that occur the least. Professor Katie Watson focuses instead on the cases that happen the most, which she calls "ordinary abortion." Scarlet A gives the reflective reader a more accurate impression of what the majority of American abortion practice really looks like. It explains how our silence around private experience has distorted public opinion, and how including both ordinary abortion and abortion ethics could make our public exchanges more fruitful. In Scarlet A, Watson wisely and respectfully navigates one of the most divisive topics in contemporary life. This book explains the law of abortion, challenges the toxic politics that make it a public football and private secret, offers tools for more productive private exchanges, and leads the way to a more robust public discussion of abortion ethics. Scarlet A combines storytelling and statistics to bring the story of ordinary abortion out of the shadows, painting a rich, rarely seen picture of how patients and doctors currently think and act, and ultimately inviting readers to tell their own stories and draw their own conclusions.

Common morality has been the touchstone of medical ethics since the publication of Beauchamp and Childress's Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979. Rosamond Rhodes challenges this dominant view by presenting an original and novel account of the ethics of medicine, one deeply rooted in the actual experience of medical professionals. She argues that common morality accounts of medical ethics are unsuitable for the profession, and inadequate for responding to the particular issues that arise in medical practice. Instead, Rhodes argues that medicine's distinctive ethics should be explained in terms of the trust that society allows to the profession. Trust is the core and starting point of Rhodes' moral framework, which states that the most basic duty of doctors is to "seek trust and be trustworthy." Building from this foundation, Rhodes explicates the sixteen specific duties that doctors take on when they join the profession, and demonstrates how her view of these duties is largely consistent with the codes of medical ethics of medical societies around the world. She then explains why it is critical for physicians to develop the attitudes or "doctorly" virtues that comprise the character of trustworthy doctors and buttress physicians' efforts to fulfil their professional obligations. Her book's presentation of physicians' duties and the elements that comprise a doctorly character, together add up to a cohesive and comprehensive description of what medical professionalism really entails. Rhodes's analysis provides a clear understanding of medical professionalism as well as a guide for doctors navigating the ethically challenging situations that arise in clinical practice