Case Studies in Health Care Ethics

Book excerpt: Case Studies in Health Care Ethics is an ideal primary or supplemental text for college students taking a bioethics course, and will be useful to anyone involved in the health care field: medical personnel and their patients, medical researchers and their subjects. The book consists of twenty-four case studies - real-life events that raised moral dilemmas for health care professionals - and explores ethical issues relating to obesity, the right of patients to refuse treatment, doctor-patient confidentiality, animal experiments, surrogate motherhood, faith healing, abortion, euthanasia, Obamacare, and many other topics. Each case study describes the events that took place, offers a critique via ethical theories such as utilitarianism and Kantian ethics, and ends with some questions for ethical reflection. The writing is thought-provoking, clear, and concise, and has a storytelling quality that readers will find engaging. Timothy Eves received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Connecticut in 1993 and is now an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bridgeport. He teaches a wide range of ethics courses, including Health Care Ethics.