Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics: Cases and Concepts, Third Edition / Edition 3

by Raymond J. Devettere

Overview

For nearly fifteen years Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics has offered scholars and students a highly accessible and teachable alternative to the dominant principle-based theories in the field. Devettere’s approach is not based on an ethics of abstract obligations and duties, but, following Aristotle, on how to live a fulfilled and happy life—in short, an ethics of personal well-being grounded in prudence, the virtue of ethical decision making.

This third edition is revised and updated and includes discussions of several landmark cases, including the tragic stories of Terri Schiavo and Jesse Gelsinger (the first death caused by genetic research). Devettere addresses new topics such as partial-birth abortion law, embryonic stem cell research, infant euthanasia in The Netherlands, recent Vatican statements on feeding tubes, organ donation after cardiac death, new developments in artificial hearts, clinical trials developed by pharmaceutical companies to market new drugs, ghostwritten scientific articles published in major medical journals, and controversial HIV/AIDS research in Africa. This edition also includes a new chapter on the latest social and political issues in American health care.

Devettere’s engaging text relies on commonsense moral concepts and avoids academic jargon. It includes a glossary of legal, medical, and ethical terms; an index of cases; and thoroughly updated bibliographic essays at the end of each chapter that offer resources for further reading. It is a true classic, brilliantly conceived and executed, and is now even more valuable to undergraduates and graduate students, medical students, health care professionals, hospital ethics committees and institutional review boards, and general readers interested in philosophy, medicine, and the rapidly changing field of health care ethics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781589012516
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	12/04/2009
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Raymond J. Devettere is a professor of philosophy at Emmanuel College where he directs the values-based education program and serves on the institutional review board. He also teaches health care ethics at Boston College and is a member of both the ethics committee and institutional review board at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Third Edition

Introduction

1. What Is Ethics? Defining EthicsTwo Kinds of EthicsHistorical Versions of the Ethics of ObligationMoral Reasoning and the Theories of ObligationContrasting the Ethics of Obligation with an Ethics of the GoodRetrieving the Ethics of the GoodBioethics TodaySuggested Readings

2. Prudence and Living a Good Life The Good We SeekHappinessMoral VirtuePrudenceSuggested Readings

3. The Language of Health Care Ethics Distinctions That Can MisleadHelpful DistinctionsSuggested Readings

4. Making Health Care Decisions Complexity of Health Care DecisionsDecision-Making CapacityInformed ConsentAdvance DirectivesThe Patient Self-Determination ActThe Case of Hazel WelchFinal ReflectionsSuggested Readings

5. Deciding for Others Becoming a ProxyStandards for Making Proxy DecisionsDeciding for Older ChildrenDeciding for the Mentally IllDeciding for Patients of Another CultureFinal Reflections on Deciding for OthersSuggested Readings

6. Determining Life and Death The Classical Conceptual FrameworkA New Conceptual FrameworkWhen Does One of Us Begin? When Does One of Us Die? Recent Controversies over Determining DeathEthical ReflectionsSuggested Readings

7. Life-Sustaining Treatments VentilatorsThe Case of Karen QuinlanThe Case of Brother FoxThe Case of william BartlingThe Case of Helga WanglieThe Case of Barbara HoweDialysisThe Case of Earle SpringSurgeryThe Case of Rosaria CanduraOther Life-Sustaining TreatmentsSuggested Readings

8. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation TerminologyA Brief History of Resuscitation AttemptsThe Effectiveness of Attempting CPRLearning to Withhold CPRImportant Ethical Elements for a DNR PolicyLingering Questions about DNR OrdersThe Case of Marie MThe Case of shirley DinnersteinThe Case of Catherine GilgunnSuggested Readings

9. Medical Nutrition and Hydration The Techniques and TechnologiesConceptualizing Medical Nutrition and HydrationThe Case of Clarence HerbertThe Case of Claire ConroyThe Case of Elizabeth bouviathe Case of Nancy CruzanThe Case of Terri SchiavoAn Emerging Controversy: the Vatican and Feeding TubesEthical ReflectionsSuggested Readings

10. Reproductive Issues Contraception and SterilizationArtificial Reproduction TechniquesCloningSurrogate MotherhoodEthical ReflectionsSuggested Readings

11. Prenatal LifeAbortionMoral Issues of AbortionRU–486Maternal–Fetal Treatment ConflictsThe Case of AngieEthical ReflectionSuggested Readings

12. Infants and Children Historical BackgroundA Sampling of Neonatal AbnormalitiesSpecial Difficulties in Deciding for Neonates and Small ChildrenThe Baby Doe RegulationsThe Case of Baby DoeThe Case of Baby Jane DoeThe Case of DanielleThe Case of Baby KThe Case of AshleyInfant Euthanasia in The NetherlandsSuggested Readings

13. Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide Historical OverviewRecent DevelopmentsPhysician-Assisted Suicide and State LawsPhysician-Assisted Suicide and the ConstitutionRelevant DistinctionsMoral Reasoning and EuthanasiaReasons for Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted SuicideReasons against Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted SuicideThe Story of a Landmark Physician-Assisted suicideThe Case of DianeConcluding ReflectionsSuggested Readings

14. Medical Research Notorious Examples of Questionable Ethics in ResearchReactions to the Questionable Medical ResearchResearch on Embryos Research on Fetuses Research on MinorsResearch in Developing CountriesOther Special Populations in ResearchAnimals and Medical ResearchSuggested Readings

15. Transplantation Transplantation of Organs from Dead Human DonorsThe Case of Jamie FiskeThe Case of Jess SepulvedaTransplantation of Organs from Living Human DonorsTransplantation of Organs from AnimalsThe Case of Baby FaeImplantation of Artificial HeartsSuggested Readings

16. Medical Genetics Genetic TestingA Case of Concern About CancerGenetic ScreeningGenetic Research on HumansThe Case of Jesse GelsingerGenetic EnhancementHuman Genome ProjectSuggested Readings

17. Social and Political Issues Paying for Health CareLegislation and the “Futility” DebateThe Case of Sun HudsonThe Case of Emilio GonzalesExperimental Drugs for Dying PatientsThe Case of Abigail Burroughs and the Abigail AllianceSeeding Trials and Ghost WritersSuggested Readings

Glossary

Index of Cases

Index

What People are Saying About This

Dominic Sisti

Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics is a refreshingly different kind of medical ethics textbook. Based on situational prudence and practical wisdom, Devettere's approach provides students and their instructors the opportunity to examine difficult bioethical issues through thoughtful discussion and careful reflection. It works wonderfully with undergraduate students who are forming their own vision of the good life.

From the Publisher

" Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics is a refreshingly different kind of medical ethics textbook. Based on situational prudence and practical wisdom, Devettere's approach provides students and their instructors the opportunity to examine difficult bioethical issues through thoughtful discussion and careful reflection. It works wonderfully with undergraduate students who are forming their own vision of the good life." -- Dominic Sisti, The University of Pennsylvania

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Anji Wall, PhD (Saint Louis University)
Description: This book proposes a virtue-based approach to case analysis and then uses this approach to analyze paramount legal cases that have shaped bioethics in the United States. This update discusses cases that have come to legal attention since the previous edition, including those of Terri Schiavo, Jesse Gelsinger, and Barbara Howe.
Purpose: The purpose is to present an alternative approach to decision making in bioethics that uses the lens of virtue ethics rather than the principle-based approach that dominates Western bioethics.
Audience: While this book is intended for a wide audience including undergraduate and graduate students in bioethics, medical students, healthcare professionals, and general readers interested in philosophy and bioethics, it is most appropriate for those who are specifically interested in analyzing the case law that has shaped bioethics in the U.S.
Features: It begins with a discussion of ethical theories followed by reviews of important topics including decision making in medicine, reproduction, genetics, transplantation, and social and political issues. It analyzes cases in a systematic way, looking at the facts, perspectives of stakeholders, good and bad aspects of the cases, legal decisions, and ethical reflections. The suggested readings section at the end of each chapter, which enables readers to explore topics of interest in greater depth, is one of the best features of this book. It also contains a glossary, an index of cases, and a general index.
Assessment: This is a very thorough discussion of the topic, using examples of case law to illustrate situations that medical professionals may encounter. It is a great reference for important case law in bioethics.

Doody's Review Service

Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics is a refreshingly different kind of medical ethics textbook. Based on situational prudence and practical wisdom, Devettere's approach provides students and their instructors the opportunity to examine difficult bioethical issues through thoughtful discussion and careful reflection. It works wonderfully with undergraduate students who are forming their own vision of the good life.

Dominic Sisti

Devettere (health care ethics, Emmanuel College and Boston College) begins with an overview of ethical theory and argues for his own Aristotleian position before going on to apply this view to a wide range of issues within medical ethics. This second edition includes new chapters on managed care and medical genetics, as well as an extended chapter on virtue and decision making. It also addresses bioethical controversies which have arisen since the publication of the first edition, such as late-term abortion, cloning, germ-line genetic research, the human genome project, brain death, non-heart- beating organ donors, and physician-assisted suicide. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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