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The Trusted Doctor rejects the reigning view that medical ethics is nothing more than the application of everyday ethics to dilemmas that arise in today's medical practice. Instead, it presents a new theory of medical ethics that is actually in line with the codes of ethics and professional oaths proclaimed by physicians around the world.

AbstractThis paper focuses on S.A. Loyd's positive account of Hobbes's moral theory as presented in chapters 5 and 6 of her new book. My discussion challenges Lloyd's reciprocity interpretation of Hobbes's moral theory. In the paper I also take issue with Lloyd's account of the derivation of his moral theory and her account of moral obligation. I offer my own definitional reading of the derivation of the Laws of Nature and my own analysis of how Hobbes explains obligation in terms of assent.

AbstractHobbes presents the fifth Law of Nature, Mutual Accommodation, in Leviathan, Chapter XV. Although a great deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to the first four Laws of Nature, hardly any mention of the fifth appears in the literature. This paper explains the fifth Law as a central piece of Hobbes's theory and thereby reveals his progressive inclinations. Drawing upon relevant passages in Leviathan I show how Hobbes's view of property allocation and reallocation derives from this Law and how attention to mutual accommodation directs sovereigns to constrain their grasping inclinations and curb their disposition to overextend legislative authority.

AbstractIn the history of moral and political philosophy, Hobbes has a bad reputation. Among other things, he has been a favorite whipping boy of moral theorists who wanted to criticize egoism. He has been so disparaged that philosophers who actually draw on his insights avoid acknowledgment of their debt and advise their similarly inspired friends to follow a similarly guarded course, all presumably to protect their own reputations. In what follows, I want to raise the question of whether Hobbes's critics have been engaged in combat with a straw man.1 Is Hobbes's moral theory a classic example of egoism? This is not a new question, but, in my opinion, the answers that have been generated to date are not satisfactory. The issue turns on his account of obligation, and the question is whether Hobbesian obligation is merely a detailed and interesting version of calculating prudent self-interest or whether it involves something that ranks as a moral foundation.2 What is at stake is the status of his Laws of Nature. Are they just a list of calculated best bets, guidelines for action, advice that can be ignored if it should ever turn out to be convenient or more prudent to do something else instead? Or, are the Laws of Nature moral commandments that may not be breached regardless of the personal advantage that could be had through a violation?

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One: Conceptual Issues -- 1. Meanings of Death -- 2. Physician-Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, and Intending Death -- 3. Physician-Assisted Suicide -- Part Two: Considering Those at Risk -- 4. Assisted Suicide -- 5. Lessons for Physician-Assisted Suicide From the African-American Experience -- 6. Why Suicide Is Like Contraception -- 7. Disability and Life-Ending Decisions -- 8. Protecting the Innocents From Physician-Assisted Suicide -- 9. Assisted Suicide, Terminal Illness, Severe Disability, and the Double Standard -- Part Three: Considering the Practice of Medicine -- 10. Physicians, Assisted Suicide, and the Right to Live or Die -- 11. Physician, Stay Thy Hand! -- 12. An Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide -- 13. Not in the House -- Part Four: Considering the Impact of Legalization -- 14. Physician-Assisted Suicide -- 15. From Intention to Consent -- 16. The Weakness of the Case for Legalizing Physician-Assisted Suicide -- 17. Physician-Assisted Suicide -- 18. The Supreme Court and Terminal Sedation -- 19. Would Physician-Assisted Suicide Save the Healthcare System Money? -- Part Five: Considering Religious Perspectives -- 20. A Catholic Perspective on Physician-Assisted Suicide -- 21. Christian Perspectives on Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia -- 22. A Protestant Perspective on Ending Life -- 23. Jewish Deliberations on Suicide -- Part Six: Appendices -- A. Washington et al. v. Glucksberg et al. -- B. Vacco et al. v. Quill et al. -- C. The Philosophers' Brief -- D. The Oregon Death With Dignity Act -- Contributors -- Index.

Because medicine can preserve life, restore health and maintain the body's functions, it is widely acknowledged as a basic good that just societies should provide for their members. Yet, there is wide disagreement over the scope and content of what to provide, to whom, how, when, and why. In this book, some of the best-known philosophers, physicians, legal scholars, political scientists, and economists writing on the subject discuss what social justice in medicine should be. The forty-two chapters in this second edition update and expand upon the thirty-four chapters of the first edition

"Because medicine can preserve life, restore health and maintain the body's functions, it is widely acknowledged as a basic good that just societies should provide for their members. Yet, there is wide disagreement over the scope and content of what to provide, to whom, how, when, and why. In this unique and comprehensive volume, some of the best-known philosophers, physicians, legal scholars, political scientists, and economists writing on the subject discuss what social justice in medicine should be. Their contributions deepen our understanding of the theoretical and practical issues that run through the contemporary debate. The forty-two chapters in this reorganized second edition of Medicine and Social Justice update and expand upon the thirty-four chapters of the 2002 first edition. Eighteen chapters from the original volume are revised to address policy changes and challenging issues that have emerged in the intervening decade. Twenty-two of the chapters in this edition are entirely new. The treatment of foundational theory and conceptual issues related to access to health care and rationing medical resources have been expanded to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced discussion of the background concepts that underlie distributive justice debates, with global perspectives on health and well-being added

The Blackwell Guide to Medical Ethics is a guide to the complex literature written on the increasingly dense topic of ethics in relation to the new technologies of medicine.Examines the key ethical issues and debates which have resulted from the rapid advances in biomedical technologyBrings together the leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, medicine, theology and law, to discuss these issuesTackles such topics as ending life, patient choice, selling body parts, resourcing and confidentialityOrganized with a coherent structure that differentiates between the d

Pesticide manufacturers have tested pesticides increasingly in human volunteers over the past decade. The apparent goal of these human studies is to establish threshold levels for symptoms, termed "no observed effect levels." Data from these studies have been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for consideration in standard setting. There are no required ethical guidelines for studies of pesticides toxicity conducted in humans, no governmental oversight is exercised, and no procedures have been put in place for the protection of human subjects. To examine ethical and policy issues involved in the testing of pesticides in humans and the use of human data in standard setting, in February 2002 the Center for Children's Health and the Environment of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine convened an expert workshop for ethicists, physicians, toxicologists, and policy analysts. After a peer consensus process, participants developed a number of ethical and public policy recommendations regarding the testing of pesticides in humans. Participants also strongly encouraged active biomonitoring of every pesticide currently in use to track human exposure, particularly in vulnerable populations, and to assess adverse effects on health.

"Common morality has been the touchstone for addressing issues of medical ethics since the publication of Beauchamp and Childress's Principles of Biomedical Ethics in 1979. In my presentation, I will challenge that reigning view by presenting two arguments. The negative argument shows why common morality cannot be the ethics of medicine. The positive argument explains why medical professions require their own ethics. I will then explain medicine's distinctive ethics in terms of the trust that society allows to the profession. By distinguishing roles from professions, I will explicate sixteen specific duties that medical professionals undertake when they join the profession. My derivation of medicine's distinctive ethics begins with a thought experiment demonstrating that trust is at the core of medical practice. Society allows doctors to develop special knowledge and skills and allows them to employ special powers, privileges, and immunities that could be particularly dangerous to members of society. Society, therefore, has to be assured that professional's use of their remarkable powers and privileges will be constrained to their intended use. Professions' publically declared codes and oaths go a long way to engender public confidence in medical professionals. Medical education must complete the job by helping our trainees understand their professional obligations and become clinicians who uphold their profession's ethics. Medical educators therefor have to help our students comprehend and internalize their duty to "seek trust and be deserving of it," and uphold their fiduciary responsibility to "use medical knowledge, skills, powers and privileges for the benefit of patients and society." "