Law and Bioethics: An Introduction

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Text for Adoption in a Bioethics Course
Review: I adopted this text in a graduate-level bioethics course for dual-degree medical students to introduce students to the leading legal cases that have proved so influential in the field of bioethics. (I used this text to supplement more philosophical-ethical-type readings.) At the end of the semester I was surprised by the number of glowing comments I received from students about this text. The text is structured along the lines of a law school case book. Most of the classic cases in bioethics are represented, as well as leading cases of relevance to medical practitioners. The author's introductory comments to each topic situate the cases in their historical, social, political, or legal contexts. I particularly found the notes and questions following each case to be extremely helpful and illuminating, and would often use these to orient and focus class discussions. Academics interested in adopting this text will be interested to know that the author provides, free of charge, an invaluable Teaching Manual to supplement this text (the author's email address is provided in the introduction). This text would be an excellent choice for adoption in graduate-level bioethics courses aimed at medical students, or as a text for a bioethics or health law course in law schools. It would also be suitable for an upper level undergraduate bioethics course in philosophy departments. Finally, this text would also be accessible to the intelligent reader with a general interest in some of the most interesting bioethical issues facing the medical and legal professions today, or to anyone interested in understanding the ways in which courts have addressed these issues. No technical medical or legal knowledge is presupposed by this text.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Text for Adoption in a Bioethics Course
Review: I adopted this text in a graduate-level bioethics course for dual-degree medical students to introduce students to the leading legal cases that have proved so influential in the field of bioethics. (I used this text to supplement more philosophical-ethical-type readings.) At the end of the semester I was surprised by the number of glowing comments I received from students about this text. The text is structured along the lines of a law school case book. Most of the classic cases in bioethics are represented, as well as leading cases of relevance to medical practitioners. The author's introductory comments to each topic situate the cases in their historical, social, political, or legal contexts. I particularly found the notes and questions following each case to be extremely helpful and illuminating, and would often use these to orient and focus class discussions. Academics interested in adopting this text will be interested to know that the author provides, free of charge, an invaluable Teaching Manual to supplement this text (the author's email address is provided in the introduction). This text would be an excellent choice for adoption in graduate-level bioethics courses aimed at medical students, or as a text for a bioethics or health law course in law schools. It would also be suitable for an upper level undergraduate bioethics course in philosophy departments. Finally, this text would also be accessible to the intelligent reader with a general interest in some of the most interesting bioethical issues facing the medical and legal professions today, or to anyone interested in understanding the ways in which courts have addressed these issues. No technical medical or legal knowledge is presupposed by this text.