The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics

Bonnie Steinbock presents The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics --an authoritative, state-of-the-art guide to current issues in bioethics.

Thirty-four contributors reflect the interdisciplinarity that is characteristic of bioethics, and its increasingly international character. Thirty topics are covered in original essays written by some of the world's leading figures in the field, as well as by some newer "up-and-comers." The essays address both perennial issues, such as the methodology of bioethics, autonomy, justice, death, and moral status, and newer issues, such as biobanking, stem cell research, cloning, pharmacogenomics, and bioterrorism. Other topics concern mental illness and moral agency, the rule of double effect, justice and the elderly, the definition of death, organ transplantation, feminist approaches to commodification of the body, life extension, advance directives, physician-assisted death, abortion, genetic research, population screening, enhancement, research ethics, and the implications of public and global health for bioethics.

Anyone who wants to know how the central debates in bioethics have developed in recent years, and where the debates are going, will want to consult this book. It will be an invaluable resource not only for scholars and graduate students in bioethics, but also for those in philosophy, medicine, law, theology, social science, public policy, and public health who wish to keep abreast of developments in bioethics.

Bonnie Steinbock is Professor of Philosophy at the University at Albany, where she teaches courses in ethics, applied ethics, philosophy of law, bioethics, public policy, and public health. She is also on the faculty of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College. She has lectured all over the world on the ethics of reproduction and genetics, and has appeared in various media, including The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. Her many publications include over 60 articles and a book, Life Before Birth:The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses (Oxford 1992). She has also edited Legal and Ethical Issues in Human Reproduction (Ashgate 2002). She is a Fellow of the Hastings Centre, the Chair of its Fellows Council, and a member of its Board of Directors. She is also a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine.