Arguing About Bioethics

Arguing About Bioethics is a fresh and exciting collection of essential readings in bioethics, offering a comprehensive introduction to and overview of the field. Influential contributions from established philosophers and bioethicists, such as Peter Singer, Thomas Nagel, Judith Jarvis Thomson and Michael Sandel, are combined with the best recent work in the subject.

Organised into clear sections, readings have been chosen that engage with one another, and often take opposing views on the same question, helping students get to grips with the key areas of debate. All the core issues in bioethics are covered, alongside new controversies that are emerging in the field, including:



embryo research
selecting children and enhancing humans
human cloning
using animals for medical purposes
organ donation
consent and autonomy
public health ethics
resource allocation
developing world bioethics
assisted suicide.


Each extract selected is clear, stimulating and free from unnecessary jargon. The editor’s accessible and engaging section introductions make Arguing About Bioethics ideal for those studying bioethics for the first time, while more advanced readers will be challenged by the rigorous and thought-provoking arguments presented in the readings.

Stephen Holland is a Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Philosophy and Health Sciences at the University of York, UK.

Introduction Part 1: Is it Wrong to do Research on Human Embryos? 1. The Metaphysical Status of the Embryo: Some Arguments Revisited D. Oderberg 2. Potentiality and Human Embryos J. Lizza 3. The Argument From Potential: A Reappraisal M. Reichlin 4. Stem Cells, Sex, and Procreation J. Harris Part 2: On What Grounds Should we Select and Enhance our Offspring? 5. The Disability Rights Critique of Prenatal Testing: Reflections and Recommendations E. Parens & A. Asch 6. Procreative Beneficence: Why we Should Select the Best Children J. Savulescu 7. Preconception Gender Selection J. A. Robertson 8. The Case Against Perfection M. J. Sandel 9. Human Genetic Enhancements: A Transhumanist Perspective N. Bostrom Part 3: Is it Wrong to Clone Human Beings? 10. Cloning R. Chadwick 11. The Wisdom of Repugnance L.R. Kass 12. Uniqueness, Individuality, and Human Cloning D. Elliott 13. Cloning, Parenthood, and Genetic Relatedness R. Sparrow 14. Slippery Slopes to Slippery Slopes: Therapeutic Cloning and the Criminal Law R. Blackford Part 4: What Uses of Animals for Biomedical Purposes are Permissible? 15. Animal Liberation at 30 P. Singer 16. Do Animals Feel Pain? P. Harrison 17. The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research C. Cohen 18. Is Xenografting Morally Wrong? A. Caplan 19. Moral Sensibilities and Moral Standing: Caplan on Xenograft ‘Donors’ J. Nelson Part 5: How Should More Human Transplant Organs be Acquired? 20. Organs for Sale? Propriety, Property, and the Price of Progress L.R. Kass 21. The Case for Allowing Kidney Sales J. Radcliffe-Richards, A. S. Daar, R. D. Guttmann, R. Hoffenberg, I. Kennedy, M. Lock, R. A. Sells, & N. Tilney 22. The Case for Presumed Consent to Transplant Human Organs After Death C. Cohen 23. The Myth of Presumed Consent: Ethical Problems in New Organ Procurement Strategies R. M. Veatch & J. B. Pitt 24. Mandated Choice for Organ Donation: Time to Give it a Try A. Spital 25. Donors and Relatives Must Place no Conditions on Organ Use L. Beecham 26. What’s Not Wrong With Conditional Organ Donation? T. M. Wilkinson 27. Point: Are Donors After Circulatory Death Really Dead, and Does it Matter? Yes and Yes J. L. Bernat 28. Counterpoint: Are Donors After Circulatory Death Really Dead, and Does it Matter? No and Not Really R. D. Truog & F. G. Miller 29. Rebuttal J.L. Bernat Part 6: What Sort of Consent Does Respect for Autonomy Imply? 30. Barriers to Informed Consent C. W. Lidz, A. Meise, M. Osterweis, J. L. Holden, J. H. Marx, & M. R. Munetz 31. The Place of Autonomy in Bioethics J.F. Childress 32. Abandoning Informed Consent R. M. Veatch 33. Should Informed Consent be Based on Rational Beliefs? J. Savulescu & R. W. Momeyer 34. Some Limits of Informed Consent O. O’Neill 35. A New Model of Medical Decisions: Exploring the Limits of Shared Decision Making S. N. Whitney Part 7: Is it Permissible to Impose on Individuals for the Sake of the Public’s Health? 36. Public Health Ethics: Mapping the Terrain J.F. Childress, R. R. Faden, R. D. Gaare, L. O. Gostin, J. Kahn, R. J. Bonnie, N. E. Kass, A. C. Mastroianni, J.D. Moreno, & P. Nieburg 37. Public Health Law in an Age of Terrorism: Rethinking Individual Rights and Common Goods L. O. Gostin 38. Libertarian Paternalism R. H. Thaler, C. R. Sunstein 39. Obesity Interventions and Ethics S. Holm 40. Should Routine Childhood Immunizations be Compulsory? D. Isaacs, H. A. Kilham, & H. Marshall 41. Banning Smoking Outdoors is Seldom Ethically Justifiable S. Chapman 42. Ethics and the Conduct of Public Health Surveillance A. L. Fairchild, & R. Bayer Part 8: How are Scarce Medical Resources to be Justly Allocated? 43. The Value of QALYs, A. Williams 44. QALYfying the Value of Life J. Harris 45. The Rationing Debate. Rationing Health Care by Age: The Case For, and the Case Against A. Williams & J. Grimley-Evans 46. Rationing and Life-Saving Treatments: Should Identifiable Patients Have Higher Priority? T. Hope 47. Health-Care Needs and Distributive Justice N. Daniels Part 9: Do Western Principles of Research Ethics Apply in the Developing World? 48. Unethical Trials of Interventions to Reduce Perinatal Transmission of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Developing Countries P. Lurie & S. M. Wolfe 49. The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World M. Angell 50. Ethical Complexities of Conducting Research in Developing Countries H. Varmus & D. Satcher 51. The "Best Proven Therapeutic Method" Standard in Clinical Trials in Technologically Developing Countries R. J. Levine 52. Universality and its Limits: When Research Ethics Can Reflect Local Circumstances D. Orentlicher 53. Participants in the 2001 Conference on Ethical Aspects of Research in Developing Countries 2004: Moral Standards for Research in Developing Countries: From ‘Reasonable Availability’ to ‘Fair Benefits’ 54. Another Voice: Fair Benefits in International Medical Research J. D. Arras 55. The Declaration of Helsinki: Another Revision R. Macklin Part 10: Should Doctors be Allowed to Help Patients to Kill Themselves? 56. An Open Letter to All Members of Parliament and of the House of Lords, From Leaders of British Faith Communities of Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs, Expressing Grave Concerns at Continuing and Renewed Efforts to Legalise Euthanasia 57. Assisted Suicide: The Philosophers’ Brief R. Dworkin, T. Nagel, R. Nozick, J. Rawls, T. Scanlon, & J. J. Thomson 58. Autonomy and Assisted Suicide: The Execution of Freedom J. P. Safranek 59. Physician-Assisted Suicide: a New Look at the Arguments J.M. Dieterle 60. Physician-Assisted Suicide: Two Moral Arguments J. J. Thomson. Index