Future Bioethics : Overcoming Taboos, Myths and Dogmas
Contents: Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. The problem and the cure. 2. How to decide which policies to adopt? 3. Legalizing physician assistance in dying for the terminally ill. 4. My choices--your conscience? 5. Food fears versus food facts--the need for appropriate risk assessment. 6. "How horrible! You\'ve become more intelligent!"--Is self-improvement wrong?. 7. Saving embryos for the trash--our illogical policies on embryonic stem cell research. Concluding observations--And an outline of a theory of moral status. Bibliography. Index.
"Should we allow terminally ill patients to hasten their deaths with the assistance of a physician? Do genetically engineered foods pose a danger? Is there something wrong about taking a drug that will enhance your intelligence? Should we conduct research on human embryos?
Questions like these are the focus of public policy debates--debates that seem never-ending because they are often based more on ideology and religious dogma than on a careful consideration of the relevant legal and ethical questions. Opposing sides shout their slogans and persuade no one. Writing in accessible terms, bio-ethicist Ronald A. Lindsay reframes these debates and explains how ethical controversies can be resolved by using commonly accepted moral principles, ensuring consistency in our views, and understanding the purposes and objectives of our policies.
Turning first to the contentious issues of assistance in dying, Lindsay presents a powerful case for legalization, using empirical evidence to demonstrate that making assisted dying legal would prevent abuses that occur when assisted dying is practiced covertly. Rejecting dogmatic claims that assisted dying violates the sanctity of life, he shows physician--assisted dying no more violates the sanctity of life than does the refusal of life-sustaining medical treatment--which patients accept as their right.
In recent years, some healthcare workers have refused to provide certain types of treatment on the ground that it violates their conscience. But this claim of conscientious objector status rests on a fundamental confusion about responsibility for healthcare decisions. Lindsay firmly establishes the primacy of patient choice over decisions made by pharmacists or nurses.
Concerns about genetically engineered plants and produce have resulted in unfounded fears about "Frankenfoods". Similarly, enhancements of human capacities, whether through drugs or genetic manipulation, have resulted in calls to ban such enhancements based on little more than an aversion to technologies that are considered "unnatural". Lindsay calls for an objective assessment of these novel technologies, carefully weighing their advantages and disadvantages.
Research on human embryonic stem cells may produce revolutionary therapies that can help millions, yet federal financial support for this research has been limited because of the scientifically unsupported claim that a human embryo possesses the moral status of an adult human--a claim starkly at odds with the accepted practice of discarding spare embryos from in vitro fertilization procedures. Despite recent developments that indicate research with other types of stem cell may be useful, Lindsay demonstrates that research on embryonic stem cells is still essential, and is morally preferable to throwing embryos in the trash.
Exhaustively researched, vigorously argued, and tightly reasoned, Future Bioethics is essential reading for anyone who wants rational, pragmatic and progressive policies on the critical bioethical issues of our time." (jacket)
