Biomedical Ethics Reviews is an annual publication designed to review and update the literature on issues of central importance in bioethics today. Ordinarily, more than one topic is discussed in each volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews. This year, however, we have decided to devote the entire volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews: 1988 to disussion of one topic, namely, AIDS. The ra tionale for this decision should be clear: AIDS is arguably the most serious public health threat facing our nation today, and the char acter of the disease is such that it creates special problems for ethicists,...

Biomedical Ethics Reviews 1987 is the fifth volume in a series of texts designed to review and update the literature on issues of central importance in bioethics today. Three topics are discussed in the present volume: (1) Prescribing Drugs for the Aged and Dying; (2) Animals as a Source of Human Transplant Organs, and (3) The Nurse's Role: Rights and Responsibilities. Each topic constitutes a separate sec tion in our text; introductory essays briefly summarize the contents of each section. Bioethics is, by its nature, interdisciplinary in character. Recognizing this fact, the authors...

This work originated in the deeply-felt conviction that the widespread acceptance of Gettier-type counterexamples to the classical definition of knowledge rests in a demonstrably erroneous understanding of the nature of human knowledge.

A collection of objective essays reviewing the principal arguments for and against stem cell research. Among the issues considered are whether stem cell research treats embryos as "commodities," violates the rights of human embryos, or alienates women from their reproductive labor, and whether human embryos are entitled to full membership in the moral community.

In virtually all the developed countries of the Western world, people are living longer and reproducing less. At the same time, costs for the care of the elderly and infirm continue to rise dramatically. Given these facts, it should come as no surprise that we are experi encing an ever-increasing concern with questions relating to the proper care and treatment of the aged. What responsibilities do soci eties have to their aging citizens? What duties, if any, do grown chil dren owe their parents? What markers should we use to determine one's status as "elderly"? Does treatment of pain in aged...

Is the involuntary commitment of the mentally ill morally proper? How can we determine proper psychiatric care in a managed health care system? And can a mental health professional violate patient's confidentiality when they believe a patient is a threat to someone? In six non-ideological essays, leading bioethicists, including one with practical experience in medical administration, search for clear moral and legal guidelines for dealing with the complex issues presented when treating mentally ill patients. Objective and readily understandable, Mental Illness and Public Health Care...

Western societies generally recognize both a legal and a moral right to privacy. However, at the present time there is no settled opin ion in the United States regarding how these rights should relate to medical information. On the one hand, virtually everyone agrees that one' s medical records should not be open to just any interested person' s inspection. On the other hand, most also agree that some sacrifices in medical privacy are necessary for scientific advancement, public health protection, and other social goals. However, what limits should be set upon those sacrifices, and how those...

The question of whether there might be a duty to die was first raised by Margaret Battin in 1987 in her ground-breaking essay, "Age Distribution and the Just Distribution of Health Care: Is There a Duty to-Die?" In 1997 the issue was reprised when two new articles appeared on the topic written by John Hardwig and the other by former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. Given the renewed interest in the topic, as well as its undeniable importance, Biomedical Ethics Re views sought to initiate an in-depth discussion of the issue by soliciting articles and issuing a general call for papers on the...

Leading bioethicists and philosophers examine and debate the question of how the health care system should deal with using complimentary and alternative medicines. The distinguished authorities writing here both defend and criticize alternative medicine, with some arguing that the medical system should change substantially in order to accommodate alternative medicine, and others claiming that virtually all alternative treatments are worthless. In the heat of the debate many fundamental issues are raised concerning our health care system, among them the questions of therapeutic effectiveness,...

Renowned philosophers and medical ethicists debate and discuss the profoundly important concepts of disease and health. Christopher Boorse begins with an extensive reexamination of his seminal definition of disease as a value-free scientific concept. In responding to all those who criticized this view, which came to be called "naturalism" or "neutralism," Boorse clarifies and updates his landmark ideas on this crucial question. Other distinguished thinkers analyze, develop, and oftentimes defend competing, nonnaturalistic theories of disease. Their combined thoughts review and update an issue...