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Gregory Pence, University of Alabama - Birmingham
After thirty years, Medical Ethics has matured to where a collection of core writings in
the field is now possible. There is even a danger that some classic articles will cease to
be known because they are no longer included in "issue of the moment" anthologies. This
book offers classic, well-written articles that have stood the test of time and have
something to teach. These are articles with good philosophical analysis dealing with
important topics and making significant contributions to understanding of issues. There
are no long, boring selections from government commissions or technical pieces from
scientific journals. Many selections illustrate how and why philosophers contributed
to the progress of medical ethics. The articles cluster around several broad philosophical
questions: terminating the lives of dying patients; assisting human life to begin outside
the womb; terminating the beginnings of human life; personhood and higher animals, fetuses,
impaired newborns, comatose patients; individual rights against the greater social good;
and allocating scarce medical resources.
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