Amid ongoing debate about health care reform, the need for informedanalyses of health policy is greater than ever. The twelve original essays inthis volume show that common public debates routinely bypass complexethical, sociocultural, historical, and political questions about how we shouldaddress ideals of justice and equality in health care. Integrating perspectivesfrom the humanities, social sciences, medicine, and public health, the contributorsilluminate the relationships between justice and health inequalitiesto complicate and enrich debates often dominated by simplistic narratives. Understanding Health Inequalities and Justice grounds key conceptualdiscussions in timely case studies and policy analyses that explore threeoverarching questions: first, how do scholars approach relations betweenhealth inequalities and ideals of justice; second, when do justice considerationsinform solutions to health inequalities, and how do specific healthinequalities affect perceptions of injustice; and third, how can diverse scholarlyapproaches contribute to better health policy? From addressing patientagency in an inequitable health care environment to examining how scholarsof social justice and health care amass evidence, this volume combines theskills and sensibilities of diverse scholars to promote a richer understandingof health and justice and the successful paths to their realization. The contributors are Judith C. Barker, Paula Braveman, Paul Brodwin,Jami Suki Chang, Debra DeBruin, Leslie A. Dubbin, Sarah Horton, Carla C.Keirns, J. Paul Kelleher, Nicholas B. King, Eva Feder Kittay, Joan Liaschenko,Anne Drapkin Lyerly, Mary Faith Marshall, Carolyn Mokley Rouse, JenniferPrah Ruger, and Janet K. Shim.

The extensively updated and revised third edition of the bestselling Social Medicine Reader provides a survey of the challenging issues facing today's health care providers, patients, and caregivers with writings by scholars in medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities.

Working Virtue is the first substantial collective study of virtue theory and contemporary moral problems. Leading figures in ethical theory and applied ethics discuss topics in bioethics, professional ethics, ethics of the family, law, interpersonal ethics, and the emotions.
Virtue ethics is centrally concerned with character traits or virtues and vices such as courage (cowardice), kindness (heartlessness), and generosity (stinginess). These character traits must be looked to in any attempt to understand which particular actions are right or wrong and how we ought to live our lives. As a theoretical approach, virtue ethics has made an impressive comeback in relatively recent history, both posing an alternative to, and, in some ways, complementing well-known theoretical stances such as utilitarianism and deontology. Yet there is still very little material available that presents virtue-ethical approaches to practical contemporary moral problems, such as what we owe distant strangers, our parents, or even non-human animals. This book fills the gap by dealing with these and other pressing moral problems in a clear and theoretically nuanced manner.
The contributors offer a variety of perspectives, including pluralistic, eudaimonistic, care-theoretical, Chinese, comparative, and stoic. This variety allows the reader to appreciate not only the wide range of topics for which a virtue-ethical approach may be fitting, but also the distinctive ways in which such an approach may be manifested.

Working Virtue is the first substantial collective study of virtue theory and contemporary moral problems. Leading figures in ethical theory and applied ethics discuss topics in bioethics, professional ethics, ethics of the family, law, interpersonal ethics, and the emotions. Virtue ethics is centrally concerned with character traits or virtues and vices such as courage (cowardice), kindness (heartlessness), and generosity (stinginess). These character traits must be looked to in any attempt to understand which particular actions are right or wrong and how we ought to live our lives. As a theoretical approach, virtue ethics has made an impressive comeback in relatively recent history, both posing an alternative to, and, in some ways, complementing well-known theoretical stances such as utilitarianism and deontology. Yet there is still very little material available that presents virtue-ethical approaches to practical contemporary moral problems, such as what we owe distant strangers, our parents, or even non-human animals. This book fills the gap by dealing with these and other pressing moral problems in a clear and theoretically nuanced manner. The contributors offer a variety of perspectives, including pluralistic, eudaimonistic, care-theoretical, Chinese, comparative, and stoic. This variety allows the reader to appreciate not only the wide range of topics for which a virtue-ethical approach may be fitting, but also the distinctive ways in which such an approach may be manifested.

The extensively updated and revised third edition of the bestselling Social Medicine Reader provides a survey of the challenging issues facing today's health care providers, patients, and caregivers with writings by scholars in medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities.

The extensively updated and revised third edition of the bestselling Social Medicine Reader provides a survey of the challenging issues facing today's health care providers, patients, and caregivers by bringing together moving narratives of illness, commentaries by physicians, debates about complex medical cases, and conceptually and empirically based writings by scholars in medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities. Volume 1, Ethics and Cultures of Biomedicine, contains essays, case studies, narratives, fiction, and poems that focus on the experiences of illness and of clinician-patient relationships. Among other topics the contributors examine the roles and training of professionals alongside the broader cultures of biomedicine; health care; experiences and decisions regarding death, dying, and struggling to live; and particular manifestations of injustice in the broader health system. The Reader is essential reading for all medical students, physicians, and health care providers.

The extensively updated and revised third edition of the bestselling Social Medicine Reader provides a survey of the challenging issues facing today's health care providers, patients, and caregivers by bringing together moving narratives of illness, commentaries by physicians, debates about complex medical cases, and conceptually and empirically based writings by scholars in medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities. Volume 1, Ethics and Cultures of Biomedicine, contains essays, case studies, narratives, fiction, and poems that focus on the experiences of illness and of clinician-patient relationships. Among other topics the contributors examine the roles and training of professionals alongside the broader cultures of biomedicine; health care; experiences and decisions regarding death, dying, and struggling to live; and particular manifestations of injustice in the broader health system. The Reader is essential reading for all medical students, physicians, and health care providers.

Amid ongoing debate about health care reform, the need for informedanalyses of health policy is greater than ever. The twelve original essays inthis volume show that common public debates routinely bypass complexethical, sociocultural, historical, and political questions about how we shouldaddress ideals of justice and equality in health care. Integrating perspectivesfrom the humanities, social sciences, medicine, and public health, the contributorsilluminate the relationships between justice and health inequalitiesto complicate and enrich debates often dominated by simplistic narratives. Understanding Health Inequalities and Justice grounds key conceptualdiscussions in timely case studies and policy analyses that explore threeoverarching questions: first, how do scholars approach relations betweenhealth inequalities and ideals of justice; second, when do justice considerationsinform solutions to health inequalities, and how do specific healthinequalities affect perceptions of injustice; and third, how can diverse scholarlyapproaches contribute to better health policy? From addressing patientagency in an inequitable health care environment to examining how scholarsof social justice and health care amass evidence, this volume combines theskills and sensibilities of diverse scholars to promote a richer understandingof health and justice and the successful paths to their realization. The contributors are Judith C. Barker, Paula Braveman, Paul Brodwin,Jami Suki Chang, Debra DeBruin, Leslie A. Dubbin, Sarah Horton, Carla C.Keirns, J. Paul Kelleher, Nicholas B. King, Eva Feder Kittay, Joan Liaschenko,Anne Drapkin Lyerly, Mary Faith Marshall, Carolyn Mokley Rouse, JenniferPrah Ruger, and Janet K. Shim.