Mark J. Cherry - Böcker

Bioethics after God explores the relationship between morality and medicine in a society that has denied the existence of God.Medicine and bioethics are going through profound changes in the Western world. Practices that prior generations would have recognized as morally impermissible, such as abortion, eugenics, and euthanasia, are becoming central components of modern health care. Bioethics after God argues that in the process of rejecting its Christian roots, the Western world has upended traditional understandings of truth that are central to both scientific and moral judgment. The effect is felt throughout medicine as health care professionals increasingly work without the context and guidance provided by traditional Christian ethics.Cherry uses the conceptual framework of "weak bioethics"—bioethics solely informed by the stark limits of secular morality—to delve into shifting concepts of health and disease, the active embrace of ethically fraught practices, and technological developments such as brain transplantation and humanoid robots designed for sexual activity. The implications of a bioethics after God are wide-ranging and profound, and Cherry challenges us to consider the repercussions of pushing forward in medicine without the support of a solid ethical foundation.

Debate regarding organ sales is largely innocent of the history of thought on the matter. This volume seeks to remedy this shortcoming. Positions for or against a market in human organs are nested within moral intuitions, ontological or political theoretical premises, or understandings of special moral concerns, such as permissible uses of the body, which have a long history of analysis. The essays encompass the views of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Mill and Christianity, as well as particular methodological approaches, such as the phenomenology of the body, natural law theory, legal theory and libertarian critique of legal theory.

Roman Catholic moral theology is the point of departure for this multifaceted exploration of the challenge of allocating scarce medical resources. This volume begins its exploration of discerning moral limits to modern high-technology medicine with a consensus statement born of the conversations among its contributors. The seventeen essays use the example of critical care, because it offers one of the few areas in medicine where there are good clinical predictive measures regarding the likelihood of survival. As a result, the health care industry can with increasing accuracy predict the probability of saving lives - and at what cost. Because critical care involves hard choices in the face of finitude, it invites profound questions about the meaning of life, the nature of a good death, and distributive justice. For those who identify the prize of human life as immortality, the question arises as to how much effort should be invested in marginally postponing death. In a secular culture that presumes that individuals live only once, and briefly, there is an often-unacknowledged moral imperative to employ any means necessary to postpone death.The conflict between the free choice of individuals and various aspirations to equality compounds the challenge of controlling medical costs while also offering high-tech care to those who want its possible benefits. It forces society to confront anew notions of ordinary versus extraordinary, and proportionate versus disproportionate, treatment in a highly technologically structured social context. This cluster of discussions is enriched by five essays from Jewish, Orthodox Christian, and Protestant perspectives. Written by premier scholars from the United States and abroad, these essays will be valuable reading for students and scholars of bioethics and Christian moral theology.

This book provides an exploration of the ethics of cardiology practice. It provides a variety of frameworks for analyzing ethical issues that arise in cardiovascular medicine.Cardiovascular medicine—the diagnosis and treatment of congenital and acquired diseases of the heart, major arteries, and veins—has seen rapid change in diagnosis, treatment, and the organization of practice in the last half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century. The complexity of these developments has resulted in increasing subspecialization, and many practitioners are challenged to stay abreast with the latest developments in cardiology. These changes also bring with them various ethical challenges. The chapters in this volume are divided by five broad areas of practice: beginning-of-life, end-of-life, transplantation and allocation of expensive or scarce resources, professionalism, and research. The case-based approach presented across the volume provides a perspective that will allow readers to reason through current and future ethical issues as they arise in this rapidly changing field.Ethical Issues in Cardiovascular Medicine will be of interest to researchers working in bioethics, clinical ethics, and the philosophy of medicine, as well as practicing physicians, nurses, and students who work in cardiovascular medicine.

This book provides an exploration of the ethics of cardiology practice. It provides a variety of frameworks for analyzing ethical issues that arise in cardiovascular medicine.Cardiovascular medicine—the diagnosis and treatment of congenital and acquired diseases of the heart, major arteries, and veins—has seen rapid change in diagnosis, treatment, and the organization of practice in the last half of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century. The complexity of these developments has resulted in increasing subspecialization, and many practitioners are challenged to stay abreast with the latest developments in cardiology. These changes also bring with them various ethical challenges. The chapters in this volume are divided by five broad areas of practice: beginning-of-life, end-of-life, transplantation and allocation of expensive or scarce resources, professionalism, and research. The case-based approach presented across the volume provides a perspective that will allow readers to reason through current and future ethical issues as they arise in this rapidly changing field.Ethical Issues in Cardiovascular Medicine will be of interest to researchers working in bioethics, clinical ethics, and the philosophy of medicine, as well as practicing physicians, nurses, and students who work in cardiovascular medicine.

This volume presents a comprehensive examination of one of bioethics’ most divisive debates: whether human organs should be bought and sold. It brings together diverse philosophical perspectives from leading scholars who explore the moral, political, and practical dimensions of organ markets.The volume addresses critical questions at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and economics:Would financial incentives for organ donation save lives or exploit the vulnerable?Can organ markets be ethically regulated to prevent abuse?How do principles of distributive justice apply to organ allocation?Should bodily autonomy extend to selling one’s organs?Contributors include both proponents who argue that properly regulated markets would increase organ supply and reduce suffering, and opponents who contend that commodification of organs violates human dignity and risks exploitation. The collection examines utilitarian, libertarian, and communitarian approaches while considering real-world policy implications. It also offers nuanced analysis of paternalistic prohibitions, feasibility concerns, and alternative procurement systems. By presenting multiple viewpoints in dialogue, the volume provides readers with the intellectual tools to form their own informed positions on this controversial issue.Markets in Human Organs for Transplantation is an ideal resource for researchers, students, and healthcare professionals interested in the ethical dimensions of transplant medicine.Chapter 2 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Regional Perspectives in Bioethics" illustrates the ways in which the national and international political landscape encompasses persons from diverse and often fragmented moral communities with widely varying moral intuitions, premises, evaluations and commitments.

Accounts of natural law moral philosophy and theology sought principles and precepts for morality, law, and other forms of social authority, whose prescriptive force was not dependent for validity on human decision, social influence, past tradition, or cultural convention, but through natural reason itself.This volume critically explores and assesses our contemporary culture wars in terms of: the possibility of natural law moral philosophy and theology to provide a unique, content-full, canonical morality; the character and nature of moral pluralism; the limits of justifiable national and international policy seeking to produce and preserve human happiness, social justice, and the common good; the ways in which morality, moral epistemology, and social political reform must be set within the broader context of an appropriately philosophically and theologically anchored anthropology. This work will be of interest to philosophers, theologians, bioethicists, ethicists and political scientists.

The Latin root of the English word culture ties together both worship and the tilling of the soil. In each case, the focus is the same: a rightly-directed culture produces either a bountiful harvest or falls short of the mark, materially or spiritually. This volume critically explores the nature and depth of our contemporary cultural crisis: its lack of traditional orientation and moral understanding. Prime among the issues at stake are the meaning and significance of birth, copulation, suffering, and death, expressed in debates regarding human embryo-experimentation and stem cell research, the character of moral and scientific norms, as well as more fundamentally, the character of an adequate epistemology for coming to appreciate the deep nature of reality and its normative implications. Given varying background ontological, epistemological, and axiological presuppositions, different moral positions and political objections will appear as not merely morally permissible but as socially and politically obligatory.

Baruch A. Brody has been one of the most important voices in bioethics over the last several decades, asking new and challenging questions about a range of problems, examining recalcitrant issues in novel ways, always with the goal of offering practical solutions to complex problems. This volume presents a sustained philosophical analysis of Brody’s contributions to biomedical ethics. The essays in this volume compass epistemological, methodological, and topical contributions to bioethics, including both application and criticism of Brody’s normative moral theory – pluralistic casuistry – Jewish medical ethics, human embryo transfer, medical futility, life and death decisions in pediatrics, euthanasia and end-of-life decision-making, the obligations of clinical researchers toward study participants, and professional integrity.Done well, philosophical work can clarify complex issues, facilitate creative problem solving, and lead to real-world solutions to difficult situations. Each contributor carefully and critically explores Brody’s writings in biomedical ethics and the philosophy of medicine, illustrating his appreciation that thorough and critical scientific research and philosophical analysis are central to reining in the untutored human desire to ameliorate pain and suffering so that medical treatments and health care policy do more good than harm.

Extraordinary social and moral shifts have taken place in Western societies. Sex is no longer the exclusive province of husband and wife set within monogamous married family life. The world is awash in sex: advertising, books, magazines, movies, sex clubs, internet pornography, etc. Parents, traditionally responsible for guiding their children's moral and social development, have been effectively side-lined by commercial and governmental interests.This volume pursues a detailed study of how changes in social life dating from the sexual revolution of the 1960s have affected the family. Cherry shows that attempts to redefine the family away from the marital union of husband and wife come with real costs: social, emotional, psychological, and financial. He argues that while political campaigns have fuelled attempts to undermine the traditional family, to pretend it possesses no basic biological, social, or moral reality, such ideologically driven undertakings are injurious to society.Acting as if there are no consequential differences between traditional marriage and other sexual lifestyles ignores significant data demonstrating the importance of the traditional biological family to the well-being of men and women, and the successful raising of children. The family possesses a biological and moral being that is foundational; an essential building block of society. Cherry argues that the family is the most incontrovertible field of conflict in the culture wars; others might conclude that it is the decisive battleground.

Extraordinary social and moral shifts have taken place in Western societies. Sex is no longer the exclusive province of husband and wife set within monogamous married family life. The world is awash in sex: advertising, books, magazines, movies, sex clubs, internet pornography, etc. Parents, traditionally responsible for guiding their children's moral and social development, have been effectively side-lined by commercial and governmental interests.This volume pursues a detailed study of how changes in social life dating from the sexual revolution of the 1960s have affected the family. Cherry shows that attempts to redefine the family away from the marital union of husband and wife come with real costs: social, emotional, psychological, and financial. He argues that while political campaigns have fuelled attempts to undermine the traditional family, to pretend it possesses no basic biological, social, or moral reality, such ideologically driven undertakings are injurious to society.Acting as if there are no consequential differences between traditional marriage and other sexual lifestyles ignores significant data demonstrating the importance of the traditional biological family to the well-being of men and women, and the successful raising of children. The family possesses a biological and moral being that is foundational; an essential building block of society. Cherry argues that the family is the most incontrovertible field of conflict in the culture wars; others might conclude that it is the decisive battleground.

If most Americans accept the notion that the market is the most efficient means to distribute resources, why should body parts be excluded? Each year thousands of people die waiting for organ transplants. Many of these deaths could have been prevented were it not for the almost universal moral hand-wringing over the concept of selling human organs. Kidney for Sale by Owner, now with a new preface, boldly deconstructs the roadblocks that are standing in the way of restoring health to thousands of people. Author and bioethicist Mark Cherry reasserts the case that health care could be improved and lives saved by introducing a regulated transplant organs market rather than by well-meant, but misguided, prohibitions.

If most Americans accept the notion that the market is the most efficient means to distribute resources, why should body parts be excluded? Each year thousands of people die waiting for organ transplants. Many of these deaths could have been prevented were it not for the almost universal moral hand-wringing over the concept of selling human organs. Kidney for Sale by Owner, now with a new preface, boldly deconstructs the roadblocks that are standing in the way of restoring health to thousands of people. Author and bioethicist Mark Cherry reasserts the case that health care could be improved and lives saved by introducing a regulated transplant organs market rather than by well-meant, but misguided, prohibitions.

Critics argue that sex robots present a clear risk to real persons and a social degradation that will increase sexual violence, objectify women, encourage pedophilia, reinforce negative body images, increase forms of sexual dysfunction, and pass on sexually transmitted disease.

Critics argue that sex robots present a clear risk to real persons and a social degradation that will increase sexual violence, objectify women, encourage pedophilia, reinforce negative body images, increase forms of sexual dysfunction, and pass on sexually transmitted disease.

This volume brings together a set of critical essays on the thought of Professor Doctor H. Tristram Engelhardt Junior, Co-Founding Editor of the Philosophy and Medicine book series. Amongst the founders of bioethics, Professor Engelhardt, Jr. looms large. Many of his books and articles have appeared in multiple languages, including Italian, Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese. The essays in this book focus critically on a wide swath of his work, in the process elucidating, critiquing, and/or commending the rigor and reach of his thought. This volume compasses analyses of many different aspects of Engelhardt's work, including social and political philosophy, biopolitics, the philosophy of medicine, and bioethics. It brings together internationally known scholars to assess key elements of Engelhardt's work.

This volume brings together a set of critical essays on the thought of Professor Doctor H. This volume compasses analyses of many different aspects of Engelhardt's work, including social and political philosophy, biopolitics, the philosophy of medicine, and bioethics.

Regional Perspectives in Bioethics" illustrates the ways in which the national and international political landscape encompasses persons from diverse and often fragmented moral communities with widely varying moral intuitions, premises, evaluations and commitments.

Western philosophy has long nurtured the hope to resolve moral controversies through reason; thereby to secure moral direction and human meaning without the need for a defining encounter with God or the transcendent. The expectation is for a moral rationality that is universal and able adequately to frame and guide the moral life. Moral and cultural unity was sought though philosophical reflection on human nature and the basic goods of a properly nurtured and virtuous life—that is, through appeal to what has come to be called the natural law.The natural law addresses permissible moral choice through objective understandings of human nature and human goods. Persons are obligated to act in ways that are compatible with creating and integrating the basic human goods into their lives and the lives of others. Such goods provide the basis for practical reasoning about virtuous choices and immediate reasons for action. The goal is the making of rational choices in the pursuit of a virtuous, flourishing, human life. Natural law theorists have argued extensively against human cloning, abortion, and same-gender marriage.Yet, whose assumptions regarding human nature should guide our understanding of the basic goods that mark the full flourishing human life? Moreover, why should nature, even human nature, be thought of as a moral boundary beyond which one must not trespass? Persons may wish actively to direct human evolution, utilizing the tools of both imagination and biotechnology. Perhaps nature is simply a challenge to be addressed, overcome, and set aside.This volume is a critical exploration of natural law theory.

Debate regarding organ sales is largely innocent of the history of thought on the matter. This volume seeks to remedy this shortcoming. Positions for or against a market in human organs are nested within moral intuitions, ontological or political theoretical premises, or understandings of special moral concerns, such as permissible uses of the body, which have a long history of analysis. The essays compass the views of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Mill and Christianity, as well as particular methodological approaches, such as the phenomenology of the body, natural law theory, legal theory and libertarian critique of legal theory. These discussions cluster a number of conceptually independent philosophical concerns: (1) What is the appropriate understanding of the relationship between persons and their bodies? (2) What does it mean to 'own' an organ? (3) Do governments have moral authority to regulate how persons use their own body parts? (4) What are the costs and benefits of a market in human organs?Such questions are related by an urgent public health challenge: the considerable disparity between the number of patients who could significantly benefit from organ transplantation and the number of human organs available for transplantation. This volume explores the theoretical, normative, and historical foundations for alternative policies for procurement and transplantation of human organs.

Accounts of natural law moral philosophy and theology sought principles and precepts for morality, law, and other forms of social authority, whose prescriptive force was not dependent for validity on human decision, social influence, past tradition, or cultural convention, but through natural reason itself.This volume critically explores and assesses our contemporary culture wars in terms of: the possibility of natural law moral philosophy and theology to provide a unique, content-full, canonical morality; the character and nature of moral pluralism; the limits of justifiable national and international policy seeking to produce and preserve human happiness, social justice, and the common good; the ways in which morality, moral epistemology, and social political reform must be set within the broader context of an appropriately philosophically and theologically anchored anthropology. This work will be of interest to philosophers, theologians, bioethicists, ethicists and political scientists.

The Latin root of the English word culture ties together both worship and the tilling of the soil. In each case, the focus is the same: a rightly-directed culture produces either a bountiful harvest or falls short of the mark, materially or spiritually. This volume critically explores the nature and depth of our contemporary cultural crisis: its lack of traditional orientation and moral understanding. Prime among the issues at stake are the meaning and significance of birth, copulation, suffering, and death, expressed in debates regarding human embryo-experimentation and stem cell research, the character of moral and scientific norms, as well as more fundamentally, the character of an adequate epistemology for coming to appreciate the deep nature of reality and its normative implications. Given varying background ontological, epistemological, and axiological presuppositions, different moral positions and political objections will appear as not merely morally permissible but as socially and politically obligatory.

Baruch A. Brody has been one of the most important voices in bioethics over the last several decades, asking new and challenging questions about a range of problems, examining recalcitrant issues in novel ways, always with the goal of offering practical solutions to complex problems. This volume presents a sustained philosophical analysis of Brody’s contributions to biomedical ethics. The essays in this volume compass epistemological, methodological, and topical contributions to bioethics, including both application and criticism of Brody’s normative moral theory – pluralistic casuistry – Jewish medical ethics, human embryo transfer, medical futility, life and death decisions in pediatrics, euthanasia and end-of-life decision-making, the obligations of clinical researchers toward study participants, and professional integrity.Done well, philosophical work can clarify complex issues, facilitate creative problem solving, and lead to real-world solutions to difficult situations. Each contributor carefully and critically explores Brody’s writings in biomedical ethics and the philosophy of medicine, illustrating his appreciation that thorough and critical scientific research and philosophical analysis are central to reining in the untutored human desire to ameliorate pain and suffering so that medical treatments and health care policy do more good than harm.