Main description:

Presuming readers start with no background in philosophy, this enhanced introduction to bioethics first provides balanced, philosophically based coverage of moral reasoning, moral theories, and the law. It then leads the newly equipped reader to explore a range of important ethical issues in health care and biomedical research.

Engaging Bioethics, Second Edition is designed for undergraduates throughout the humanities and social sciences as well as for health care professionals-in-training, including students in medical school, pre-medicine, nursing, public health, and those studying to assist physicians in various capacities. Along with coverage of standard bioethical issues-like vaccination, access to health care, new reproductive technologies, genetics, research on human and animal subjects, abortion, medical confidentiality, and disclosure-it now addresses ethical aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US Supreme Court's Dobbs-v-Jackson decision, use of CRISPR for human gene editing, and the expansion of medically assisted death globally.

Key Features

Flexibility for the instructor, with chapters that can be read independently and in an order that fits the course structure
Integration with case studies and primary sources
Attention to issues of gender, race, cultural diversity, and justice in health care
Pedagogical features to help instructors and students, including:

Chapter learning objectives
Text boxes and figures to explain important terms, concepts, and cases
End-of-chapter summaries, key words, and annotated further readings
Discussion cases and questions
An index of cases discussed in the book and extensive glossary/index

A companion website (COMPANION WEBSITE URL) with a virtual anthology linking to key primary sources, a test bank, topics for papers, and PowerPoints for lectures and class discussion

Key Updates to the Second Edition

An expanded treatment of vaccination ethics
A new chapter wholly devoted to the tools of moral thinking
About 300 new entries in "References," many of which are annotated in the "Further Reading" section at the end of each chapter
Additional topics on the patient-healthcare professional relationship such as social nudging in healthcare and public health, and the limits of beneficence in connection with the burnout of frontline healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic
New, up-to-date cases and questions for further discussion throughout the chapters
Updated learning objectives and overviews for each chapter
A simpler general structure with no appendices (relevant materials from two previous appendices appear now in the chapters on moral reasoning, abortion, and medically assisted death)

Contents:

1. From Vaccination Ethics to Bioethics and Ethics 2. The Tools of Ethical Inquiry 3. Philosophical Accounts of Morality 4. Principle-Oriented and Case-Oriented Bioethics 5. Managing Patient Information 6. Consent with Competence and Without 7. Death and Dying 8. When Life Supports Are Futile or Refused 9. Medically Assisted Death 10. End-of-Life Measures for Severely Compromised Newborns 11. Morality and the Law in the Typical Case of Abortion 12. Morality and the Law in Hard Cases of Abortion 13. New Reproductive Technologies 14. Human Genetic Engineering 15. Biomedical Research on Animals 16. Biomedical Research on Humans 17. Justice in Healthcare