Overview

In this book, Schaller provides a thorough examination of the impact of biotechnology and biomedical advances on the everyday lives of people in modern society. Individuals and institutions are increasingly faced with a growing number of critical personal and ethical decisions that present themselves at all stages of life, from birth to death. These issues include the physician-patient relationship, informed consent, confidentiality and privacy, reproductive choices, end-of-life choices, health care, drug choices, and the allocation of scarce resources such as human organs, sperm, and eggs. In the absence of policies, we turn increasingly to the courts to resolve these issues. Schaller illuminates the role of the law in bioethics controversies. Although bioethics as an independent discipline is barely thirty years old, bioethics issues already pervade everyday life and regularly capture the attention of the media. The field is constantly changing because of new developments in technology and medicine. Many significant controversies in bioethics are developing without a great deal of policy regulation. In the absence of policy, individuals and institutions are increasingly turning to courts for decisions on crucial controversies. When court cases are brought, judge-made law has great impact, not only in terms of resolving particular controversies, but also in transforming bioethical issues in ways that cannot be anticipated. Advances and discoveries in medicine and the life sciences will continue to have important and yet unpredictable impacts, not only on the lives of individuals, but on society as a whole. The great promise of new developments is offset by numerous perils. Individual and public policy choices must take into account the full range of possibilities, and Schaller has provided an invaluable guide to this ethical minefield.

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9780275999186

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Reviews

This is an excellent book. After situating bioethics as a discipline within its social context and outlining the ways in which it is threatened by court intervention, Schaller (justice, Connecticut Supreme Court) discusses the legislative and administrative regulation of human subject research....This book is recommended for all with an interest in bioethics. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through professional collections. -Choice

<p> Standing at the intersection of philosophy, law, science, medicine, and in some cases, theology, bioethics encompasses some of the most troubling questions of the past two decades. Here, Schaller addresses and analyzes in depth a range of bioethical issues: the use of human subjects in scientific research; wrongful birth and wrongful life claims; in vitro fertilization and use of embryos; genetic diagnostic techniques; embryotic stem cell research; organ transplants; and end-of-life issues....Schaller combines a practical sense of how the law works, with a reflective approach to all these contemporary legal and ethical issues. - <p>Law and Politics Book Review

Author Information

Barry R. Schaller is a Connecticut Supreme Court Justice. He is an instructor of trial advocacy at Yale Law School and has recently held visiting lecturer appointments at Trinity College, Wesleyan University, and the University of Connecticut's School of Public Health.

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