The focus of bioethical debates on exceptional cases neglects the underlying values-like justice and community-that would lend to a broader, more well-rounded understanding of today's world. Discussions of ethical problems in health care too often concentrate on exceptional cases. Bioethical controversies triggered by experimental drugs, gene-edited babies, or life extension are understandably fascinating: they showcase the power of medical science and technology while addressing anxieties concerning health, disease, suffering, and death. However, the focus on rare individual cases in the media spotlight turns attention away from more pressing ethical issues that impact global populations, such as access to health care, safe food and water, and the prevention of emerging infectious diseases. In Bizarre Bioethics, Henk A.M.J. ten Have argues that this focus on bizarre cases leads to bizarre bioethics with a narrow agenda for ethical debate. In other words, although these extreme cases are undeniably real, they present a limited and skewed view of everyday moral reality. This focus also assumes that individuals are rational decision-makers, so that the role of feelings and emotions can be downgraded. Larger questions related to justice, solidarity, community, meaning, and ambiguity are not appreciated. Such questions used to be posed by philosophical and theological traditions, but they have been exorcised and marginalized in the development of bioethics. Science, ten Have writes, is not a value-free endeavor that provides facts and evidence: it is driven by underlying value perspectives that are often based on metaphors and world views from philosophical and theological traditions. Drawing on a rich analysis of the literature, ten Have explains how bioethical discussion can be enriched by these metaphors and develops a broader approach that critically delves into the imaginative world views that determine understanding of the world and human existence. Examining the roles of the metaphors of ghosts, monsters, pilgrims, prophets, and relics, ten Have illustrates how science and medicine are animated by imaginations that fuel the search for hope, salvation, healing, and a predictable future. Bizarre Bioethics invites students, researchers, policymakers and teachers interested in ethics and health care to think about the value perspectives on health and disease today.

Exploring the interconnectedness of human health, biodiversity, and bioethics. We all depend on environmental biodiversity for clean air, safe water, adequate nutrition, effective drugs, and protection from infectious diseases. Today's healthcare experts and policymakers are keenly aware that biodiversity is one of the crucial determinants of health-not only for individuals but also for the human population of the planet. Unfortunately, rapid globalization and ongoing environmental degradation mean that biodiversity is rapidly deteriorating, threatening planetary health on a mass scale. In Wounded Planet, Henk A.M.J. ten Have argues that the ethical debate about healthcare has become too narrow and individualized. We must, he writes, adopt a new bioethical discourse-one that deals with issues of justice, equality, vulnerability, human rights, and solidarity-in order to adequately reflect the serious threat that current loss of biodiversity poses to planetary health. Exploring modern environmental challenges in depth, ten Have persuasively demonstrates that environmental concerns can no longer be separated from healthcare challenges, and thus should be included in global bioethics. Going beyond an individualized perspective, he poses audacious questions: What does it mean that patients are poor or uninsured and cannot afford suggested medicines? How can we deal with the air and water pollution that are producing a patient's illness? How do we respond to patients complaining about the safety and quality of drinking water in their neighborhood? Touching on infectious and noncommunicable diseases, as well as food, medicine, and water, Wounded Planet transcends the limited vision of mainstream bioethics to compassionately reveal how healthcare and medicine must take a broad perspective that includes the social and environmental conditions in which individuals live.

As the first of its kind, this handbookpresents state-of-the-art information and analysis concerning the state of affairs in bioethics inaround 40 countries.

The country reports point out the most important discussions as well as the emerging topics in the field. Readers can orientate themselves quicklywith regard tothe various relevant issues, institutional structures and expertise available in these countries.

The authorship of this reference work is truly global as it involves contributions from the best authors with innate knowledge of the bioethics situation in these countries."

The focus of bioethical debates on exceptional cases neglects the underlying values-like justice and community-that would lend to a broader, more well-rounded understanding of today's world. Discussions of ethical problems in health care too often concentrate on exceptional cases. Bioethical controversies triggered by experimental drugs, gene-edited babies, or life extension are understandably fascinating: they showcase the power of medical science and technology while addressing anxieties concerning health, disease, suffering, and death. However, the focus on rare individual cases in the media spotlight turns attention away from more pressing ethical issues that impact global populations, such as access to health care, safe food and water, and the prevention of emerging infectious diseases. In Bizarre Bioethics, Henk A.M.J. ten Have argues that this focus on bizarre cases leads to bizarre bioethics with a narrow agenda for ethical debate. In other words, although these extreme cases are undeniably real, they present a limited and skewed view of everyday moral reality. This focus also assumes that individuals are rational decision-makers, so that the role of feelings and emotions can be downgraded. Larger questions related to justice, solidarity, community, meaning, and ambiguity are not appreciated. Such questions used to be posed by philosophical and theological traditions, but they have been exorcised and marginalized in the development of bioethics. Science, ten Have writes, is not a value-free endeavor that provides facts and evidence: it is driven by underlying value perspectives that are often based on metaphors and world views from philosophical and theological traditions. Drawing on a rich analysis of the literature, ten Have explains how bioethical discussion can be enriched by these metaphors and develops a broader approach that critically delves into the imaginative world views that determine understanding of the world and human existence. Examining the roles of the metaphors of ghosts, monsters, pilgrims, prophets, and relics, ten Have illustrates how science and medicine are animated by imaginations that fuel the search for hope, salvation, healing, and a predictable future. Bizarre Bioethics invites students, researchers, policymakers and teachers interested in ethics and health care to think about the value perspectives on health and disease today.

This book critically analyses experiences with bioethics education in various countries across the world and identifies common challenges and interests. It presents ethics teaching experiences in nine different countries and the basic question of the goals of bioethics education. It addresses bioethics education in resource-poor countries, as the conditions and facilities are widely different and set limits and provide challenges to bioethics educators. Further, the question of how bioethics education can be improved is explored by the contributors. Despite the volume of journal publications agreement on bioethics education is rather limited. There are only few examples of core curricula, demonstrating consensus on the contents, goals, methods and assessment of teaching programs. We need ask: How can agreement on the best modalities of bioethics education be promoted?.

This book critically analyses experiences with bioethics education in various countries across the world and identifies common challenges and interests. It presents ethics teaching experiences in nine different countries and the basic question of the goals of bioethics education. It addresses bioethics education in resource-poor countries, as the conditions and facilities are widely different and set limits and provide challenges to bioethics educators. Further, the question of how bioethics education can be improved is explored by the contributors. Despite the volume of journal publications agreement on bioethics education is rather limited. There are only few examples of core curricula, demonstrating consensus on the contents, goals, methods and assessment of teaching programs. We need ask: How can agreement on the best modalities of bioethics education be promoted?.

Alzheimer disease afflicts more than twelve million people worldwide, and its incidence is increasing at a staggering rate. People with the disorder are living longer than have those in previous generations, and they require interventions for quality-of-life issues associated with palliative care. However, the symptoms of Alzheimer disease often fail to place such persons into settings where palliative care resources are available to them. Indeed, clinicians and other caregivers may be unsure about what constitutes effective palliation in these cases. At the same time, the ethical issues involved in providing end-of-life care to persons with Alzheimer disease remain on the margins of mainstream bioethics.

In "Ethical Foundations of Palliative Care for Alzheimer Disease," leading ethicists and clinicians from the United States and Europe explore ethical and scientific concerns about the diagnosis and prognosis of Alzheimer disease, challenges arising from applying palliative procedures to its symptoms, key philosophical and theological concepts central to our understanding of the disease and to end-of-life decisions, and the changing patterns of relevant medical, social, and economic policies. Cross-cultural, multidisciplinary, and state-of-the-art, this volume is a unique and important resource for bioethicists, clinicians, and policy makers everywhere.

Contributors: David A. Bennahum, M.D., University of New Mexico; Pierre Boitte, Ph.D., Catholic University of Lille, France; Roger A. Brumback, M.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Wim J. M. Dekkers, M.D., Ph.D., University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Elizabeth Furlong, R.N., Ph.D., J.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Eugenijus Gefenas, M.D., Ph.D., Vilnius University, Lithuania; Bert Gordijn, Ph.D., University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Amy M. Haddad, R.N., Ph.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Soren Holm, M.D., Ph.D., Dr.Med.Sci., University of Manchester; Franz J. Illhardt, D.D., Ph.D., Freiburg University; Rien Janssens, Ph.D., University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Givi Javashvili, M.D., Ph.D., State Medical Academy of Georgia, Tbilisi; Judith Lee Kissell, Ph.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Gunilla Nordenram, D.D.S., Ph.D., Karolinska Institute, Stockholm; Richard L. O'Brien, M.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Marcel G. M. Olde Rikkert, M.D., Ph.D., University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Winifred J. Ellenchild Pinch, R.N., Ed.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Patricio F. Reyes, M.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Anne-Sophie Rigaud, M.D., Ph.D., Hopital Broca, Paris; Linda S. Scheirton, Ph.D., Creighton University Medical Center; Jos V. M. Welie, M.Med.S., J.D., Ph.D., Creighton University Medical Center.

In October 2005, UNESCO Member States adopted by acclamation the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. For the first time in the history of bioethics, some 190 countries committed themselves and the international community to respect and apply fundamental ethical principles related to medicine, the life sciences and associated technologies. This publication provides a new impetus to the dissemination of the Declaration, and is part of the Organizations continuous effort to contribute to the understanding of its principles worldwide. The authors, who were almost all involved in the elaboration of the text of the Declaration, were asked to respond on each article: Why was it included? What does it mean? How can it be applied? Their responses shed light on the historical background of the text and its evolution throughout the drafting process. They also provide a reflection on its relevance to previous declarations and bioethical literature, and its