This is an extraordinary book!...Bill Silverman, brings to bear on contemporary medical issues the logic of science, an abiding concern for the welfare of infants, and a vigorous defense of the rights of their parents. His essays should be savored, dipped into and returned to rather than read consecutively from cover to cover, thought about, argued with, and reread.

• Foreword by David L. Sackett ; Preface ; List of Respondents ; Introduction ; 1. Selective ethics ; 2. Does a difference make a difference ; 3. Prescription for disaster ; 4. Therapeutic mystique ; 5. Humane limits ; 6. Intruding in private tragedies ; 7. The glut of information ; 8. Betting on specified horses ; 9. Begin with 'if...' ; 10. Archie's scepticism ; 11. Arbitrary vs discretionary decisions ; 12. Bioengineering ; 13. '...disavowing the tree' ; 14. Diffusing responsibility Weil's reply ; 15. Hawthorne effects ; 16. Power plays ; 17. Unbridled enthusiasm ; 18. Caring and curing ; 19. On the edge ; 20. Informing and consenting Weil's reply ; 21. Lifesavers ; 22. Belief and disbelief ; 23. Preferences ; 24. Bradford Hill's doubts ; 25. More-informative abstracts ; 26. Pain control in neonates ; 27. Miraculous cures ; 28. Observer bias ; 29. The gamekeeper's brouhaha ; 30. Champing at the bit ; 31. Piecemeal skirmishes ; 32. Resolution of dilemma's Sinclair and Fowlie's reply Watts and Saigal's reply ; 33. 'Fixing' human reproduction ; 34. Justice defined as fairness ; 35. 'Methods-based' reviews ; 36. Non-replication of the replicable ; 37. Who defines 'futility' Goldworth and Benitz's reply ; 38. Fitting targets in holes ; 39. Medical 'manners' on trial ; 40. Sanction of whose beliefs and values? ; 41. Mindness existence ; 42. Interventions on an unprecedented scale ; 43. Preoccupation with 'autonomy' ; 44. A 'win' in medical Russian Roulette Lantos' reply ; Citations ; Bibliography ; Index