HSC 440 & PHL 440: Biomedical Ethics

Editors Wanda Teays, John-Stewart Gordon, and Alison Dundes Renteln have assembled the works of an interdisciplinary, international team of experts in bioethics into a comprehensive, innovative and accessible book. It opens with theoretical frameworks that inform a Global Bioethics, followed by three units for an in-depth look at contemporary issues in the field. These are human rights, culture, and public health--with each unit including theoretical discussions and lively case studies.

The central idea behind this book is that we lack consensus on principles for allocating medical resources - and in the absence of such a consensus we must develop and rely on a fair decision-making process for setting limits on health care. Daniels and Sabin provide a cogent analysis of the current situation, lucidly review the usual candidate solutions, and describe their own approach. The audience for the book is global since the problem of limited resources cuts across types of health care systems whether or not they have universal coverage.

The third edition of Social Determinants of Health focuses on the socio-economic conditions that shape the health of individuals and communities. The chapters take a public policy approach that sees the mainsprings of health emerging from the social distribution of resources.

Critical but accessible, Global Health Inequities questions taken-for-granted assumptions, showing how breakthroughs in biomedicine alone cannot address inequities in health. The book's analysis of theory and empirical work elucidates key debates and highlights the most significant challenges facing global health today, including the growing burden of chronic non-communicable diseases and the persistent injustice of neglected tropical diseases.

Contributors to this volume consider whether health inequalities are a result of global distributive inequalities and are therefore of concern to those promoting global redistributive justice. Cases are explored alongside theoretical questions of definition, responsibility and moral relevance to discover the scope of responsibilities that developed nations have towards poor health in developing nations.

In this book, Brent Robert Kelly explores the impact of the biblical principles of community and honor on the problem of ageism in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). He argues that QALYs are problematic as a basis for health care allocation.

The Ethics of Health Care Rationing considers and assesses the major ethical problems and dilemmas about the allocation, scarcity and rationing of health care. Throughout the book, examples from the US, UK and other countries are used to illustrate the ethical issues at stake. Additional features such as chapter summaries, annotated further reading and discussion questions make this an ideal starting point for students new to the subject, not only in philosophy but also in closely related fields such as politics, health economics, public health, medicine, nursing and social work.