Health Care Ethics

Fifth edition of a classic health care ethics textbook from a traditional Catholic perspective, one that remains loyal to official church teaching and Vatican pronouncements. Earlier editions covered the landscape: what is means to be human; the health care profession; the logic of making health care decisions; wide range of issues, including sexuality, abortion, genetic intervention, mental illness, and end-of-life treatment. These books received the imprimatur of the archdiocese. A far cry from David Kelly! The fifth edition, a legitimate revision, features several new components:

First, the addition of a co-author, Jean deBlois, helps integrate feminist insights into the text. She's not exactly Gloria Steinem, but this edition contains a deeper appreciation of particular issues surrounding gender and women (viz., responses to rape, health care inequalities, etc.). Second, the authors explore several issues that were little discussed in the mid-1990s: embryo development, stem cell research, medical mistakes, the decrease of patient-physican contact with the advent of managed care, forensic medicine, the proliferation of cosmetic surgery, and nutrition and obesity. Third, the authors address the social setting of health care by examining organizational ethics, the increase of lay people in pastoral ministry, the problems emerging from the growth of Catholic health care corporations, etc. Fourth, during the past several years the Church and Pope John Paul II have offered new guidelines for medical treatment, particularly in regard to artificial nutrition and hydration; the authors wrestle with these. Finally, the authors address the problematic health care system in the United States, and how it fails to meet the common good of society.