For more than twenty years Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics has offered scholars and students a highly accessible and teachable alternative to the dominant principle-based theories in the field. Raymond J. Devettere's approach is not based on an ethics of abstract obligations and duties but, following Aristotle, on how to live a fulfilled and happy life -- in short, an ethics of personal well-being grounded in prudence, the virtue of ethical decision making. In this revised fourth edition, Devettere updates most chapters, adding new cases and sections on the following: neuroscience, social psychology, overriding advance directives, studies on the fetus, the palliative care movement, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, pharmacist and reproductive issues, prenatal life and abortion, neonatal testing and mandatory vaccinations, the US government's STD research in Guatemala, the emergence of biobanks, facial transplantations, genetic testing, legal issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act, and more. Thoughtfully updated and renewed for a new generation readers, this classic textbook will be required reading for students and scholars of philosophy and medical ethics.

This fascinating examination of the development of virtue ethics in the early stages of western civilization deals with a wide range of philosophers and schools of philosophy -- from Socrates and the Stoics to Plato, Aristotle, and the Epicureans, among others. This introduction examines those human attributes that we have come to know as the "stuff" of virtue: desire, happiness, the "good," character, the role of pride, prudence, and wisdom, and links them to more current or modern conceptions and controversies.

The tension between viewing ethics and morality as fundamentally religious or as fundamentally rational still runs deep in our culture. A second tension centers on whether we view morality primarily in terms of our obligations or primarily in terms of our desires for what is good. The Greek term "arete," which we generally translate as "virtue," can also be translated as "excellence." "Arete" embraced both intellectual and moral excellence as well as human creations and achievements. Useful, certainly, for classrooms, "Virtue Ethics" is also for anyone interested in the fundamental question Socrates posed, "What kind of life is worth living?"

For more than twenty years Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics has offered scholars and students a highly accessible and teachable alternative to the dominant principle-based theories in the field. Raymond J. Devettere's approach is not based on an ethics of abstract obligations and duties but, following Aristotle, on how to live a fulfilled and happy life -- in short, an ethics of personal well-being grounded in prudence, the virtue of ethical decision making. In this revised fourth edition, Devettere updates most chapters, adding new cases and sections on the following: neuroscience, social psychology, overriding advance directives, studies on the fetus, the palliative care movement, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, pharmacist and reproductive issues, prenatal life and abortion, neonatal testing and mandatory vaccinations, the US government's STD research in Guatemala, the emergence of biobanks, facial transplantations, genetic testing, legal issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act, and more. Thoughtfully updated and renewed for a new generation readers, this classic textbook will be required reading for students and scholars of philosophy and medical ethics.

For nearly fifteen years "Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics" has offered scholars and students a highly accessible and teachable alternative to the dominant principle-based theories in the field. Devettere's approach is not based on an ethics of abstract obligations and duties, but, following Aristotle, on how to live a fulfilled and happy life-in short, an ethics of personal well-being grounded in prudence, the virtue of ethical decision making. This third edition is revised and updated and includes discussions of several landmark cases, including the tragic stories of Terri Schiavo and Jesse Gelsinger (the first death caused by genetic research). Devettere addresses new topics such as partial-birth abortion law, embryonic stem cell research, infant euthanasia in The Netherlands, recent Vatican statements on feeding tubes, organ donation after cardiac death, new developments in artificial hearts, clinical trials developed by pharmaceutical companies to market new drugs, ghostwritten scientific articles published in major medical journals, and controversial HIV/AIDS research in Africa. This edition also includes a new chapter on the latest social and political issues in American health care. Devettere's engaging text relies on commonsense moral concepts and avoids academic jargon. It includes a glossary of legal, medical, and ethical terms; an index of cases; and, thoroughly updated bibliographic essays at the end of each chapter that offer resources for further reading. It is a true classic, brilliantly conceived and executed, and is now even more valuable to undergraduates and graduate students, medical students, health care professionals, hospital ethics committees and institutional review boards, and general readers interested in philosophy, medicine, and the rapidly changing field of health care ethics.