Title: Medical Ethics: Evolution, Rights and the Physician
Abstract: In<i>Medical Ethics: Evolution, Rights and the Physician</i>, Henry A. Shenkin attempts to develop an evolutionary basis for ethics (part 1) and then apply that framework to various issues in medical ethics (part 2). Although many of the discussions in part 2 are illuminating, the framework of part 1 is highly problematic and has little relevance to the later discussions. <h3>Part 1</h3> —whose chapter headings are "Ethical Theory," "Dual Evolution: Ethics, the Law, Rights," and "Bases for Medical Ethics"—seriously misconstrues ethical theories and the nature of ethical argumentation. There is a consistent failure to distinguish issues in normative ethics, which concerns what one<i>should</i>do and why; metaethics, which concerns the philosophical foundations of normative ethics—like a matter of<i>justification</i>; and psychology, which includes<i>explanations</i>of actual thought processes and behavior (pp 3,5, 9). Misunderstanding of ethical theories is illustrated, in just a few pages, by false assertions that (1)
Publication Year: 1991
Publication Date: 1991-09-04
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 2
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