Reviews
Ultimately, the innovations and court decisions most associated with bioethics, Stevens shows, were less rooted in concern about the abuse of patients than in researchers' and biomedical institutions' desires for the freedom to pursue new medical technologies and their need for protection from legal liability. Bioethics has served more as a 'midwife' to new medical research and technologies than as a critic. These findings should concern all of us. Steven's critical analysis of bioethics is a valuable revision.
An interesting and provocative book, well worth reading for the issues it raises as well as for the historical analysis of the bioethics movement.
Bioethics in America merits our attention. It will encourage additional reflection on the sources and meaning of the rise of this new profession dedicated to moral arbitration.
Stevens has a pithy prose style and a healthy willingness to challenge received wisdom.
A major contribution to the history of bioethics.
Book Details
Prologue. The Tradition of Ambivalence
Chapter 1. The Culture of Post-atomic Ambivalence
Chapter 2 "Leaders of Leaders": The Hastings Center, 1969 to the Present
Chapter 3. Redefining Death in America
Prologue. The Tradition of Ambivalence
Chapter 1. The Culture of Post-atomic Ambivalence
Chapter 2 "Leaders of Leaders": The Hastings Center, 1969 to the Present
Chapter 3. Redefining Death in America, 1968
Chapter 4. "Sleeping Beauty": Karen Ann Quinlan and the Rise of Bioethics in America
Epilogue. Conclusion and Outlook