Ranging over central issues of morals and politics and the nature of freedom and authority, this study examines the role of value-neutrality, rights, equality, ...

Book reviewed in this article: Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and Human Affairs. By Leon R. Kass.

The report produced by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission at the request of President Bill Clinton, titled Cloning Human Beings, provides a good example of the two-pronged approach to religion in bioethics. The report merits careful scrutiny precisely because of the deftness with which it appears to negotiate the thorny questions surrounding the role of religion in public policy. Analysis of the structure, arguments, and rhetoric of the report reveals the theoretical and practical inadequacy of the currently reigning two-pronged approach (...) to the role of religious perspectives in the field of bioethics. (shrink)

Bioethics represents a dramatic revision of the centuries-old professional ethics that governed the behavior of physicians and their relationships with patients. This venerable ethics code was challenged in the years after World War II by the remarkable advances in the biomedical sciences and medicine that raised questions about the definition of death, the use of life-support systems, organ transplantation, and reproductive interventions. In response, philosophers and theologians, lawyers and social scientists joined together with physicians and scientists to rethink and revise (...) the old standards. Governments established commissions to recommend policies. Courts heard arguments and legislatures passed laws. This book is the first broad history of the growing field of bioethics. Covering the period 1947-1987, it examines the origin and evolution of the debates over human experimentation, genetic engineering, organ transplantation, termination of life-sustaining treatment, and new reproductive technologies. It assesses the contributions of philosophy, theology, law and the social sciences to the expanding discourse of bioethics. Written by one of the field's founders, The Birth of Bioethics is based on extensive archival research into sources that are difficult to obtain and on interviews with many of the leading figures in the moral debates in medicine. A very readable and comprehensive account of the evolution of bioethics, this book stresses the history of ideas but does not neglect the social and cultural context and the people involved. It will serve the information needs of philosophers, ethicists, social historians, and everyone interested in the origins of some of today's most hotly debated issues. (shrink)

Over the course of its first seven editions, Principles of Biomedical Ethics has proved to be, globally, the most widely used, authored work in biomedical ethics. It is unique in being a book in bioethics used in numerous disciplines for purposes of instruction in bioethics. Its framework of moral principles is authoritative for many professional associations and biomedical institutions-for instruction in both clinical ethics and research ethics. It has been widely used in several disciplines for purposes of teaching in the (...) classroom, during conferences, etc. (shrink)

In this volume, Feinberg focuses on the meanings of "interest," the relationship between interests and wants, and the distinction between want-regarding and ideal-regarding analyses on interest and hard cases for the applications of the concept of harm. Examples of the "hard cases" are harm to character, vicarious harm, and prenatal and posthumous harm. Feinberg also discusses the relationship between harm and rights, the concept of a victim, and the distinctions of various quantitative dimensions of harm, consent, and offense, including the (...) magnitude, probability, risk, and "importance" of harm. (shrink)

The promise and the peril of our are inextricably linked with the promise and the peril of modern science. On the one hand, the spread of knowledge has overcome superstition and reduce fear born of ignorance, and the application of science through technology has made life less poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Deuxième volet d'une recherche sur la "disputatio", l'une des principales méthodes d'enseignement et de recherche dans les universités médiévales. Dresse un tableau de l'usage et de l'évolution de cette méthode dans les facultés des arts du XIIIe au XVe siècle.

The disputatio was one of the basic instruction methods at the medieval universities. It was used at all faculties: Theology, Law, Medicine and also at the Arts Faculty. So far, research has essentially focused on the theological disputatio. The disputatio at the Arts Faculty has been neglected for a long time and examples of real importance have been studied more because of their doctrinal contents than from a methodological point of view. Olga Weyers' study - limited to the Paris University (...) during the first one and a half century of its existence - extensively describes the character and functioning of the disputatio at the Arts Faculty. It tries to link the rules stipulated by the statutes with the practice as it can be deduced from the texts; it aims at putting the disputatio into another context, viz. the intellectual history.La disputatio fut l'une des méthodes de base de l'enseignement universitaire au moyen âge. Elle a été utilisée dans toutes les Facultés: théologie, droit, médecine et aussi à la Faculté des arts. Jusqu'à présent, les recherches ont été centrées essentiellement sur la dispute théologique. La disputatio à la Faculté des arts a été négligée et les exemples concrets ont retenu l'attention plutôt pour leur contenu doctrinal que pour leur côté méthodologique. La présente étude -limitée à la seule Université de Paris pendant le premier siècle et demi de son existence- veut donner une idée du caractère et du fonctionnement de la disputatio à la Faculté des Arts. Elle essaie de faire le lien entre les règles édictées par les statuts et la pratique telle qu'elle se dégage des textes; elle a pour but de mettre la disputatio dans une autre lumière, à savoir celle de l'histoire intellectuelle. (shrink)

Details goverment, private, and international response to the policy recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission.