Case Analysis in Clinical Ethics

Case Analysis in Clinical Ethics is an eclectic review from a team of leading ethicists covering the main methods for analysing ethical problems in modern medicine. Anneke Lucassen, a clinician, begins by presenting an ethically challenging genetics case drawn from her clinical experience. It is then analysed from different theoretical points of view. Each ethicist takes a particular approach, illustrating it in action and giving the reader a basic grounding in its central elements. Each chapter can be read on its own, but comparison between them gives the reader a sense of how far methodology in medical ethics matters, and how different theoretical starting points can lead to different practical conclusions. At the end, Anneke Lucassen gives a clinician’s response to the various ethical methods described. Practising clinical ethicists and students on upper level undergraduate and Master\'s degree courses in medical ethics and applied philosophy will find this invaluable.

• Case-based discussion of problems in medical ethics • Comparative presentation of different methods in medical ethics • Focusses on the analysis of a richly described case study

Contents

Notes on contributors; 1. Philosophical introduction: case analysis in clinical ethics Richard Ashcroft, Michael Parker, Marian Verkerk and Guy Widdershoven; 2. Families and genetic testing; the case of Jane and Phyllis Anneke Lucassen; 3. Family access to shared genetic information: an analysis of the narrative Brian Hurwitz; 4. A virtue ethics approach Alastair Campbell; 5. Interpretation and dialogue in hermeneutic ethics Guy Widdershoven; 6. ‘Power, corruption and lies’: ethics and power Richard Ashcroft; 7. Reading the genes Robert Withers; 8. A utilitarian approach Julian Savulescu; 9. A feminist care ethical approach on genetics Marian Verkerk; 10. A conversational approach to the ethics of genetic testing Michael Parker; 11. Families and genetic testing; the case of Jane and Phyllis from a four principles perspective Raanan Gillon; 12. A phenomenological approach to bioethics George Agich; 13. An empirical approach Søren Holm; 14. Response to ethical dissections of the case Anneke Lucassen; 15. Philosophical reflections Michael Parker, Richard Ashcroft, Marian Verkerk and Guy Widdershoven; Index.