Ethics and the Metaphysics of Medicine
Ethics and the Metaphysics of Medicine

Author: Kenneth A. Richman

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2004-06-18

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780262264341

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Explores the philosophical and practical ethical implications of a definition of health as a state that allows us to reach our goals. Definitions of health and disease are of more than theoretical interest. Understanding what it means to be healthy has implications for choices in medical treatment, for ethically sound informed consent, and for accurate assessment of policies or programs. This deeper understanding can help us create more effective public policy for health and medicine. It is notable that such contentious legal initiatives as the Americans with Disability Act and the Patients' Bill of Rights fail to define adequately the medical terms on which their effectiveness depends. In Ethics and the Metaphysics of Medicine, Kenneth Richman develops an "embedded instrumentalist" theory of health and applies it to practical problems in health care and medicine, addressing topics that range from the philosophy of science to knee surgery. "Embedded instrumentalist" theories hold that health is a match between one's goals and one's ability to reach those goals, and that the relevant goals may vary from individual to individual. This captures the normative implications of the term health while avoiding problematic relativism. Richman's embedded instrumentalism differs from other theories of health in drawing a distinction between the health of individuals as biological organisms and the health of individuals as moral agents. This distinction illuminates many difficulties in patient-provider communication and helps us understand conflicts between promoting health and promoting ethically permissible behavior. After exploring, expanding, and defending this theory in the first part of the book, Richman examines its ethical implications, discussing such concerns as the connection between medical beneficence and respect for autonomy, patient-provider communication, living wills, and clinical education.

Reflections on Medical Ethics
Reflections on Medical Ethics

Author: Jean-Pierre Cléro

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-02-08

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 3030652335

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This book questions the notions of person, personality, dignity, and other connected notions such as (informed) consent, and discusses new perspectives on categories that allow ethical debates in medicine to overcome morals and ordinary religious schemes. The book states that one has to be careful when thinking about situations in terms of notions and principles that have been obtained in similar situations. Though this book is mostly philosophical, it is also of great practical interest to healthcare givers. It warns caregivers not to rely too much on notions such as person, autonomy, and consent, which are supposedly firm but can be proven to be unreliable in spite of appearances. Furthermore, this work warns against a narrow anthropologisation of ethics which would make technophobian positions unavoidable. On the contrary, this book is open to robotics and offers – among other things - a sustained exploration of the notion of intimacy.

Philosophical Reflections on Medical Ethics
Philosophical Reflections on Medical Ethics

Author: N. Athanassoulis

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2005-09-08

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0230273939

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This book provides a collection of original essays on cutting-edge topics in medical ethics research. Leading philosophers give in-depth accounts of issues as diverse as embryo pre-selection, the role of autonomy in organ transplant markets, conscientious objection in the health care professions and neonatal euthanasia. Provocative and original, the contributions to this volume will be of interest to academic, students and health care professionals alike.

Care in Healthcare
Care in Healthcare

Author: Franziska Krause

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-10-24

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 3319612913

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This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book examines the concept of care and care practices in healthcare from the interdisciplinary perspectives of continental philosophy, care ethics, the social sciences, and anthropology. Areas addressed include dementia care, midwifery, diabetes care, psychiatry, and reproductive medicine. Special attention is paid to ambivalences and tensions within both the concept of care and care practices. Contributions in the first section of the book explore phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to care and reveal historical precursors to care ethics. Empirical case studies and reflections on care in institutionalised and standardised settings form the second section of the book. The concluding chapter, jointly written by many of the contributors, points at recurring challenges of understanding and practicing care that open up the field for further research and discussion. This collection will be of great value to scholars and practitioners of medicine, ethics, philosophy, social science and history.

Transforming Healthcare Education
Transforming Healthcare Education

Author: Philip C. Scibilia

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-03-16

Total Pages: 111

ISBN-13: 1475845944

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This book sets the scene for the deliberations on ethics and its application to healthcare in the twenty-first century. The word ethics, in classical Greek, means the “beliefs of the people” the study of what is right and good in human conduct and the justification of such claims. Without a doubt this task is not simply about setting up a list of rights and wrongs. Rather, it is a discussion, a process that helps tease out the real issues and find and teach ethical solutions to complex practical problems. The centrality of the patient is of prime consideration in this book, and the health of the individual patient is the first consideration in the teaching considerations discussed. Applied ethics in healthcare may have lost sight of what traditional ethics was trying to accomplish: a good life for good people over a lifetime in society with others. We must put biomedical ethics into perspective and develop a truly comprehensive approach to health care ethics. On the practical level, we need structures integrating givers ethical perspectives. But, there seems to be a gap and significant perception differences among healthcare providers’ learning environments and actual professional situations. Hence, teaching ethics and healthcare providers values is important to bridge this gap.

Bioethics in the Clinic
Bioethics in the Clinic

Author: Grant Gillett

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2004-05-21

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9780801878435

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Selected by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title What is so special about human life? What is the relationship between flesh and blood and the human soul? Is there a kind of life that is worse than death? Can a person die and yet the human organism remain in some real sense alive? Can souls become sick? What justifies cutting into a living human body? These and other questions, writes neurosurgeon and philosopher Grant Gillett, pervade hospital wards, clinical offices, and operating rooms. In Bioethics in the Clinic: Hippocratic Reflections, Gillett brings the tools of philosophy to bear on some of the most pressing issues confronting bioethicists today. Gillett draws on many schools of thought, including analytic, moral, and postmodern philosophy; utilitarianism; classical ethical theory; phenomenology; and metaphysics. He engages the reasoning of such philosophers as Aristotle, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Foucault, Habermas, Levinas, and Martha Nussbaum, and offers both practical and clinical insights into such topics as the principle of "Do no harm," informed consent, confidentiality, cloning, and euthanasia. Opening with an explanation of the axioms to be traced throughout succeeding discussions, with special emphasis on Hippocratic principles, Gillett focuses on general and specific problems of clinical practice, particularly as they affect the physician-patient relationship. The author then goes on to address ethical problems related to both the end of life, including euthanasia, and the beginning of life, such as embryo and stem cell research. Rigorous and elegant, this book will be of interest to those in medical fields, to students and scholars of philosophy, and to lay readers interested in the profound ethical dramas played out in hospitals and doctors' offices every day.