"Doctors have been concerned with ethics since the earliest days of medical practice. Traditionally, medical practitioners have been expected to be motivated by a desire to help their patients. Ethical codes and systems, such as the Hippocratic Oath, have emphasised this. During the latter half of the 20th century, advances in medical science, in conjunction with social and political changes, meant that the accepted conventions of the doctor/patient relationship were increasingly being questioned. After the Nuremberg Trials, in which the crimes of Nazi doctors, among others, were exposed, it became clear that doctors cannot be assumed to be good simply by virtue of their profession. Not only this, but doctors who transgress moral boundaries can harm people in the most appalling ways"--

The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Health Law covers the breadth and depth of health law, with contributions from the most eminent scholars in the field. The Handbook paints with broad thematic strokes the major features of American healthcare law and policy, its recent reforms including the Affordable Care Act, its relationship to medical ethics and constitutional principles, how it compares to the experience of other countries, and the legal framework for the patient experience. This Handbook provides valuable content, accessible to readers new to the subject, as well as to those who write, teach, practice, or make policy in health law.

Natural disasters and cholera outbreaks. Ebola, SARS, and concerns over pandemic flu. HIV and AIDS. E. coli outbreaks from contaminated produce and fast foods. Threats of bioterrorism. Contamination of compounded drugs. Vaccination refusals and outbreaks of preventable diseases. These are just some of the headlines from the last 30-plus years highlighting the essential roles and responsibilities of public health, all of which come with ethical issues and the responsibilities they create. Public health has achieved extraordinary successes. And yet these successes also bring with them ethical tension. Not all public health successes are equally distributed in the population; extraordinary health disparities between rich and poor still exist. The most successful public health programs sometimes rely on policies that, while improving public health conditions, also limit individual rights. Public health practitioners and policymakers face these and other questions of ethics routinely in their work, and they must navigate their sometimes competing responsibilities to the health of the public with other important societal values such as privacy, autonomy, and prevailing cultural norms. This Oxford Handbook provides a sweeping and comprehensive review of the current state of public health ethics, addressing these and numerous other questions. Taking account of the wide range of topics under the umbrella of public health and the ethical issues raised by them, this volume is organized into fifteen sections. It begins with two sections that discuss the conceptual foundations, ethical tensions, and ethical frameworks of and for public health and how public health does its work. The thirteen sections that follow examine the application of public health ethics considerations and approaches across a broad range of public health topics. While chapters are organized into topical sections, each chapter is designed to serve as a standalone contribution. The book includes 73 chapters covering many topics from varying perspectives, a recognition of the diversity of the issues that define public health ethics in the U.S. and globally. This Handbook is an authoritative and indispensable guide to the state of public health ethics today.

Bonnie Steinbock presents the authoritative, state-of-the-art guide to current issues in bioethics, covering 30 topics in original essays by some of the world's leading figures in the field, as well as by some newer 'up-and-comers'. Anyone who wants to know how the central debates in bioethics have developed in recent years, and where the debates are going, will want to consult this book.

This is a short textbook of ethics and law aimed primarily at medical students. The book is in two sections. The first considers general aspects of ethics (in the context of medicine); the second section covers the topics identified in the 'consensus agreement'. The content of medical law is not intended to be comprehensive and relates very much to the ethical issues. The law will be updated throughout including: consent in light of Mental Capacity Act; mental health law in light of Mental Health Act; end of life (depending on outcome of Burke case and the passage of the Joffe Bill); assisted reproduction in light of expected changes in HFEA. New guidelines to be added: the guidelines and processes around medical research are under review and likely to develop and change; GMC guidelines are under continual revision (the Burke case in particular may have direct impact, but it is also likely that the confidentiality guidelines will undergo revision particularly in view of the increasing importance of genetic data). The new legal aspects outlined above will require some changes to the ethical analysis: the ethical issues of new technology will be included (cloning; transgenesis and chimera, i.e. forming organisms from more than one species) and stem-cells; resource allocation ethics is moving on to examining a wider range of issues than covered in the first edition and this will be discussed; the whole area of mental disorder and capacity to consent is an active area of ethical research and the second edition would cover some of this new work.

Bonnie Steinbock presents The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics - an authoritative, state-of-the-art guide to current issues in bioethics. Thirty-four contributors reflect the interdisciplinarity that is characteristic of bioethics, and its increasingly international character. Thirty topics are covered in original essays written by some of the world's leading figures in the field, as well as by some newer 'up-and-comers'. The essays address both perennial issues, such as the methodology of bioethics, autonomy, justice, death, and moral status, and newer issues, such as biobanking, stem cell research, cloning, pharmacogenomics, and bioterrorism. Other topics concern mental illness and moral agency, the rule of double effect, justice and the elderly, the definition of death, organ transplantation, feminist approaches to commodification of the body, life extension, advance directives, physician-assisted death, abortion, genetic research, population screening, enhancement, research ethics, and the implications of public and global health for bioethics. Anyone who wants to know how the central debates in bioethics have developed in recent years, and where the debates are going, will want to consult this book. It will be an invaluable resource not only for scholars and graduate students in bioethics, but also for those in philosophy, medicine, law, theology, social science, public policy, and public health who wish to keep abreast of developments in bioethics.

The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Health Law covers the breadth and depth of health law, with contributions from the most eminent scholars in the field. The Handbook paints with broad thematic strokes the major features of American healthcare law and policy, its recent reforms including the Affordable Care Act, its relationship to medical ethics and constitutional principles, and how it compares to the experience of other countries. It explores the legal framework for the patient experience, from access through treatment, to recourse (if treatment fails), and examines emerging issues involving healthcare information, the changing nature of healthcare regulation, immigration, globalisation, aging, and the social determinants of health.