When is a human study ethical? For years, science and society have struggled with this question. Experts have put great effort into developing ethical principles and rules that adequately protect and respect volunteers in studies aimed at improving human health. But experts have missed something important. They have created a research ethics system without the help of people who know what it is like to be a research subject. This is a serious omission. Experienced research subjects can make valuable contributions to research ethics. People who have been in studies have information about the experience that other people can overlook. Their experience as subjects gives them special insights into ethics, too. Experienced subjects also know about problems that can lead people to refuse to join studies, or drop out before studies are complete. Scientists and ethicists often speak of subjects as partners in research, but the reality is quite different. Experienced subjects are rarely appointed to the advisory groups that create guidelines for ethical research, or to the committees that review individual studies to determine whether they meet ethical and regulatory standards. A large body of work describes the perceptions and viewpoints of people who have participated in research. But experts rarely use this material to guide improvements in human subject protection. Although subjects have the power to decide whether to participate in a study, they have little control over anything else that goes on in research. Silent Partners moves research subjects to the forefront. It examines what research participation is like for healthy volunteers and patients. It explains why subjects' voices should influence research ethics. Silent Partners shows how experienced research subjects can become real-not just symbolic-partners in research.

Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender of human dignity. From bioethics to civic education, from interpreting the Bible to weighing the moral implications of modern science, Kass has offered wisdom, guidance, and instruction. In this volume, fifteen of Kass's admirers, including students, colleagues, and friends, honor his work by reflecting on the broad range of subjects to which he has devoted his life's work. Some of the essays offer interpretations of great works of literature and philosophy from Homer, Sophocles, and Plato to Rousseau, Franklin, Jane Austen, Hawthorne, and Henry James. Others examine the significance of Leon Kass's work as a bioethicist and Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics and as an interpreter of the Book of Genesis. The essays collected in Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver offer a sense of the breadth of Kass's interests and insights and of the influence he has had on generations of scholars. The reader is further acquainted with the career of Leon R. Kass by a biographical introduction and a comprehensive listing of his published writings and the courses he has taught."

The Human Use of Animals reports the facts about some of the most compelling and difficult issues about animal welfare that confront society today. Fully revised and with four new chapters, the 16 case studies in the present volume explore a variety of controversies about the human uses of animals that have emerged over the last 40 years or so. The book begins with a lengthy exploration of applicable ethical theory. It then presents the facts of the 16 cases, followed in each case by analysis of pertinent theoretical and practical ethical issues. This volume offers a discussion of controversies within a range of contexts that includes biomedical, behavioural, and wildlife research, cosmetic safety testing, education, entertainment (zoos and circuses), the food industry, commerce, companion animals and animal uses in religious practices.

This is the first book of case studies on animal ethics. It deals with important social controversies involving the human use of animals and analyses the moral issues involved. An excellent introduction to ethical theory provides a framework to the 16 original case studies, which include the use of animals in research, testing, and education, as food, as companion animals, and in religious rites.

'You have cancer.' Words no one wants to hear, but heard by millions every year. Millions more hear the equally shattering news that a loved one has cancer. Both are life-changing messages. For the people writing this book, cancer was not only a personal crisis, it was also an education. Experts on medical ethics, personal experience with cancer showed them how little they understood of the real world of serious illness. Despite years of teaching and writing about treatment decision-making and patient autonomy, they were unprepared for many of the problems they faced. They discovered that the rights and wrongs of cancer care were more complicated than they had anticipated. Ethics outside the hospital walls took on unexpected significance as they discovered the astonishing generosity, and the unintentional cruelty, that cancer provokes in others. Cancer was a test of personal character, too, as patients accustomed to control became dependent on others and caregivers shouldered unfamiliar and difficult responsibilities. In chapters on cancer diagnosis, treatment choices, and research participation, the authors examine medical ethics from the personal point of view. In chapters on family caregiving, cancer interactions, and cancer support groups, they consider ethics outside the medical setting. In chapters on mortality and survivorship, they reflect on cancer's personal moral teachings. Cancer is an unavoidable feature of modern life. Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of what it is like to have cancer, better equipped to respond to cancer in their own lives and the lives of others. The book also offers insights to doctors and nurses seeking to improve cancer treatment and to medical ethicists seeking to make their work more relevant to patients and caregivers. "Rebecca Dresser's idea for a book on cancer was an inspired one. In bringing together a group of people from the field of bioethics with personal experience of cancer, as survivors or caretakers, we see in moving detail what it is like to wrestle with the disease. It will offer those with cancer or caring for those with it uncommon insight and wisdom. If one has to think about or deal with the disease, one can hardly ask for more."- Dan Callahan, The Hastings Center

When is a human study ethical? For years, science and society have struggled with this question. Experts have put great effort into developing ethical principles and rules that adequately protect and respect volunteers in studies aimed at improving human health. But experts have missed something important. They have created a research ethics system without the help of people who know what it is like to be a research subject. This is a serious omission. Experienced research subjects can make valuable contributions to research ethics. People who have been in studies have information about the experience that other people can overlook. Their experience as subjects gives them special insights into ethics, too. Experienced subjects also know about problems that can lead people to refuse to join studies, or drop out before studies are complete. Scientists and ethicists often speak of subjects as partners in research, but the reality is quite different. Experienced subjects are rarely appointed to the advisory groups that create guidelines for ethical research, or to the committees that review individual studies to determine whether they meet ethical and regulatory standards. A large body of work describes the perceptions and viewpoints of people who have participated in research. But experts rarely use this material to guide improvements in human subject protection. Although subjects have the power to decide whether to participate in a study, they have little control over anything else that goes on in research. Silent Partners moves research subjects to the forefront. It examines what research participation is like for healthy volunteers and patients. It explains why subjects' voices should influence research ethics. Silent Partners shows how experienced research subjects can become real-not just symbolic-partners in research.

Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender of human dignity. From bioethics to civic education, from interpreting the Bible to weighing the moral implications of modern science, Kass has offered wisdom, guidance, and instruction. In this volume, fifteen of Kass's admirers, including students, colleagues, and friends, honor his work by reflecting on the broad range of subjects to which he has devoted his life's work. Some of the essays offer interpretations of great works of literature and philosophy from Homer, Sophocles, and Plato to Rousseau, Franklin, Jane Austen, Hawthorne, and Henry James. Others examine the significance of Leon Kass's work as a bioethicist and Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics and as an interpreter of the Book of Genesis. The essays collected in Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver offer a sense of the breadth of Kass's interests and insights and of the influence he has had on generations of scholars. The reader is further acquainted with the career of Leon R. Kass by a biographical introduction and a comprehensive listing of his published writings and the courses he has taught."