"This book concerns much good sense. Indeed, good sense is as much a methodological concern of the book as it is a way of characterizing its findings."<br /><i><b>Philosophical Quarterly</b></i> <p> "Jennifer Jackson has produced an excellent book ... one that should engage the interest of anyone prepared to make a little effort. It is a lively and refreshing work, full of argument and comprising a good mixture of scholarly caution and forthright commitment ... Readers will find thought-provoking material throughout ... Everywhere Jackson shows a great talent for taking us quickly and without jargon or pedantry into deep philosophical questions, and I warmly recommend her work."<i><b><br /> Journal of Medical Ethics</b></i></p>
These new foundations rest on familiar observations of human nature and human needs. Jackson presents morality as a loose anatomy of constituent virtues that are related in different ways to how we fare in life, and suggests that in order to address problems in medical ethics, a virtues-based approach is needed. Throughout, attention is paid to the role of philosophy in medical ethics, and how it can be used to clarify key notions and distinctions that underlie current debates and controversial issues. By reinstating such concepts as justice, cardinal virtue, and moral duty, Jackson lays the groundwork for an ethics of health care that makes headway toward resolving seeming dilemmas in medical ethics today.
This penetrating and accessible book will be invaluable to students of sociology and health care, as well as those who are interested in the ethical uncertainties faced by the medical world.
Preface
Chapter One: Virtues and Vices
Chapter Two: Justice – A Problematic Virtue?
Chapter Three: Benevolence – A Problematic Virtue?
Chapter Four: Benevolence – The Only Virtue?
Chapter Five: The Dictates of Conscience
Chapter Six: The Duty to Obtain Consent
Chapter Seven: ‘First, Do No Harm'
Chapter Eight: Duties to Give, and Rights to Get, Health Care
Chapter Nine: Distributive Justice in Health Care
Chapter Ten: Abortion
Chapter Eleven: Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia
Chapter Twelve: Killing and Letting Die
Chapter Thirteen: Patients’ Deaths and Doctors’ Decisions
Chapter Fourteen: Moral Issues in Reproductive Medicine
Chapter Fifteen: In Retrospect
Bibliography
These new foundations rest on familiar observations of human nature and human needs. Jackson presents morality as a loose anatomy of constituent virtues that are related in different ways to how we fare in life, and suggests that in order to address problems in medical ethics, a virtues-based approach is needed. Throughout, attention is paid to the role of philosophy in medical ethics, and how it can be used to clarify key notions and distinctions that underlie current debates and controversial issues. By reinstating such concepts as justice, cardinal virtue, and moral duty, Jackson lays the groundwork for an ethics of health care that makes headway toward resolving seeming dilemmas in medical ethics today.
This penetrating and accessible book will be invaluable to students of sociology and health care, as well as those who are interested in the ethical uncertainties faced by the medical world.