The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics

Medicine and health care generate many bioethical problems and dilemmas that are of great academic, professional and public interest. This comprehensive resource is designed as a succinct yet authoritative text and reference for clinicians, bioethicists, and advanced students seeking a better understanding of ethics problems in the clinical setting. Each chapter illustrates an ethical problem that might be encountered in everyday practice; defines the concepts at issue; examines their implications from the perspectives of ethics, law and policy; and then provides a practical resolution. There are 10 key sections presenting the most vital topics and clinically relevant areas of modern bioethics. International, interdisciplinary authorship and cross-cultural orientation ensure suitability for a worldwide audience. This book will assist all clinicians in making well-reasoned and defensible decisions by developing their awareness of ethical considerations and teaching the analytical skills to deal with them effectively.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; Part I. Information Problems: 2. Consent; 3. Capacity; 4. Disclosure; 5. Voluntariness; 6. Truth-telling; 7. Confidentiality; Part II. End of Life Care: 8. Quality end of life care; 9. Substitute decision-making; 10. Advanced care planning; 11. Euthanasia and assisted suicide; 12. Conflict in the health care setting at the end of life; 13. Brain death; Part III. Pregnant Women and Children: 14. Ethics dilemmas in the care of pregnant women: rethinking 'maternal-fetal conflicts'; 15. Pre-natal testing and newborn screening; 16. Assisted reproduction; 17. Respectful involvement of children in medical decision-making; 18. Non-therapeutic paediatric interventions; 19. Child abuse and neglect; Part IV. Genetics and Biotechnology: 20. Organ transplantation; 21. Regenerative medicine; 22. Genetic testing and screening; 23. Bio-banking; 24. Behavioural genetics; Part V. Research Ethics: 25. Research Ethics; 26. Innovation in medical care: Examples from surgery; 27. Clinical trials; 28. Epidemiological research; 29. Clinical research and the physician-patient relationship: the dual roles of physician and researcher; 30. Financial conflict of interest in medical research; 31. Embryo and fetal research; Part VI. Health Systems and Institutions : 32. Organizational ethics; 33. Priority setting; 34. Disclosure of medical error; 35. Conflict of interest in education and patient care; 36. Public health ethics; 37. Emergency and disaster scenarios; 38. Rural health care ethics; 39. Community health care ethics; Part VII. Using Clinical Ethics to Make an Impact in Health Care: 40. Clinical ethics and systems thinking; 41. Innovative strategies to improve effectiveness in clinical Ethics; 42. Teaching bioethics to medical students and postgraduate trainees in the clinical setting; Part VIII. Global Health Ethics: 43. Global health ethics and cross-cultural considerations in bioethics; 44. Physician participation in torture; 45. Access to medicines and the role of corporate social responsibility: the need to craft a global pharmaceutical system with integrity; 46. Global health and non-ideal justice; Part IX. Religious and Cultural Perspectives in Bioethics: 47. Aboriginal bioethics; 48. Buddhist bioethics; 49. Chinese Bioethics; 50. Hindu and Sikh bioethics; 51. Islamic boethics; 52. Jehovah's Witness bioethics; 53. Jewish bioethics; 54. Protestant bioethics; 55. Roman Catholic bioethics; Part X. Speciality Bioethics: 56. Surgical ethics; 57. Anaesthesiology ethics; 58. Critical and intensive care ethics; 59. Emergency and trauma medicine ethics; 60. Primary care ethics; 61. Infectious diseases ethics; 62. Psychiatric ethics; 63. Neuroethics; 64. Pharmacy ethics; 65. Alternative and complementary care ethics.

About the Author :
Peter A. Singer is Director Emeritus, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics; Senior Scientist, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network; and Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto. A. M. Viens is a Senior Scholar at Hertford College, Oxford, and a Doctoral Student in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford.

Review :
'This is a comprehensive and carefully designed textbook that will attract many users in the health professions. The chapters, written by a group of distinguished authors, are presented in a format that is well suited to interactive educational use.' Bulletin of the World Health Organization 'This is a very comprehensive text and very well organised. …the subject is treated from a systematic standpoint, concisely and precisely addressing ethics, law and policy and a practical resolution to the case studies is presented at the beginning of the 65 topics dealt with in separate chapters. … This is a significant achievement and for a rigourous approach to a subject for practitioners and a concise overview of a topic for teachers, this is innovative and successful.' Nursing Ethics 'The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics achieves something significant - it provides an original and valuable addition to an already crowded marketplace. The list of contributors reads like a Who's Who of bioethics. Many well-respected authors are included and the quality of writing reflects the esteem in which the contributors are held. … The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics is a textbook of the highest standard, with erudite, thoughtful and thought-provoking contributions on 60 topics. … At the end, the reader is left reflecting not only on health care but on what it means to be altruistic, professional, ill, honest, vulnerable, political, dependent and simply human. This is a rare achievement for any book and is why this text is uniquely deserving of a place on even the most crowded bookshelves.' American Medical Association 'Overall The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics is an invaluable tool for the clinician, student, professor, administrator and patient interested in improving the quality of healthcare in any clinical setting.' Critical Care Medicine 'The Cambridge Textbook has a clear focus on providing practical guidance … all contributions are easily accessible, given their predefined and clear structure, concise and well referenced. Certainly, these features will make the Cambridge Textbook a greatly appreciated reference for health professionals in all disciplines.' Arthur Caplan 'Very few textbooks survive as long as the Osler textbook of medicine, which lasted for more than 3 generations and 25 editions. Nevertheless, I anticipate that The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics will be the first of a series of editions and will be used and enjoyed by clinicians and bioethics students for many years to come.' Canadian Medical Association Journal '… this book fulfils all the requirements for a good practical ethics book and I suggest that all medical schools should have a copy of this book in their libraries.' Indian Journal of Medical Research 'The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics is a comprehensive, helpful resource for understanding the breadth of ethical issues that emerge in medical settings. … an excellent resource for getting the basic idea of varying issues … serves as an important resource for engagement with this increasingly complex field.' thegospelcoalition.org