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Bioethics >> Content Detail



Study Materials



Readings


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This page includes a table of assigned readings with associated study guides, plus several background readings.



Assigned Readings



LEC #TOPICSREADINGSSTUDY GUIDES
Topic 1: Ending Life
1Introduction
2Killing IRachels, James. "Active and Passive Euthanasia." New England Journal of Medicine 292 (January 9, 1975): 78-80.
3Killing II

Nesbitt, Winston. "Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die?" Journal of Applied Philosophy (1995): 101-105.

Kuhse, Helga. "Why Killing is Not Always Worse-and Sometimes Better-Than Letting Die." Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 7 (1998): 371-374.

4From Euthanasia to Assisted Suicide

Emanuel, Ezekiel J. "The History of Euthanasia Debates in the United States and Britain." Annals of Internal Medicine 121 (1994): 793-802.

"Euthanasia-Degenerated Sympathy." Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 154 (March 11, 1906): 330-331. (PDF)

Quill, Timothy. "Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making." New England Journal of Medicine 324 (1991): 691-694.

(PDF)
5Withdrawal of Life Support

Reiser, Stanley J. "The Intensive Care Unit: The Unfolding Ambiguities of Survival Therapy." International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 8 (1992): 382-394.

Clinical Care Committee, Massachusetts General Hospital. "Optimum Care for Hopelessly Ill Patients." New England Journal of Medicine 295 (August 12, 1976): 362-364.

Annas, George J. "'Culture of Life' Politics at the Bedside-The Case of Terri Schiavo." New England Journal of Medicine 352, no. 16 (April 21, 2005): 1710-1715.

(PDF)
Topic 2: Nascent Life
6History and Abortion

Reagan, Leslie J. "'About to Meet Her Maker': Women, Doctors, Dying Declarations, and the State's Investigation of Abortion, Chicago, 1867-1940." Journal of American History 77 (March 1991): 1240-1264.

Cantor, Julie, and Ken Baum. "The Limits of Conscientious Objection-May Pharmacists Refuse to Fill Prescriptions for Emergency Contraception?" New England Journal of Medicine 351 (November 4, 2004): 2008-2012.

(PDF)
7Early Humans I - Abortion

Tooley, Michael. "Abortion and Infanticide." Philosophy and Public Affairs 2, no. 1 (1972): 37-65.

Marquis, Don. "Why Abortion is Immoral." Journal of Philosophy 86, no. 4 (1989): 183-202.

8Early Humans II - Stem CellsGreen, Ronald M. "Benefiting From 'Evil': An Incipient Moral Problem in Human Stem Cell Research." Bioethics 16, no. 6 (2002): 544-556.
9Neonatal Intensive Care

Baker, Jeffrey P. "The Incubator Controversy: Pediatricians and the Origins of Premature Infant Technology in the United States, 1890-1910." Pediatrics 87 (May 1991): 654-662.

Stinson, Robert, and Peggy Stinson. "On the Death of a Baby." Atlantic Monthly (July 1979): 63-72.

Angell, Marcia. "Handicapped Children: Baby Doe and Uncle Sam." New England Journal of Medicine 309 (September 15, 1983): 659-661.

Vohr, Betty R., and Marilee Allen. "Extreme Prematurity-The Continuing Dilemma." New England Journal of Medicine 352 (January 6, 2005): 71-72.

(PDF)
Topic 3: Creating and Optimizing Life
10The Obligations of Pregnancy"Calming Pregnancy Fears," "ACOG Pregnancy Exercise Guidelines," "9 Tips for a Fit Pregnancy," "Smoking for Two: A Dangerous Pursuit," "Wanting a Baby? Get Your Weight Under Control Now," "Eating for Two," "Is Seafood Safe During Pregnancy?" "Since When Am I Public Property?" All available at Pregnancy Today.(PDF)
11Optimizing Offspring

Guterman, Lilla, and Francis X. Rocca. "Choosing Eugenics: How Far Will Nations Go to Eliminate a Genetic Disease?" Chronicle of Higher Education 49 (May 2, 2003).

Rifkin, Jeremy. "Ultimate Therapy: Commercial Eugenics in the 21st Century." Harvard International Review 27 (Spring 2005): 44-48.

(PDF)
12The Non-Identity Problem IAmazon logo Parfit, Derek. "The Non-Identity Problem." Chapter 16 in Reasons and Persons. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780198249085.
13The Non-Identity Problem IIAmazon logo ———. "The Repugnant Conclusion." Chapter 17 in Reasons and Persons. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780198249085.
14Eugenics

Amazon logo Kevles, Daniel J. "International Eugenics." In Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race. Edited by Dieter Kuntz. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, for the Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006, pp. 40-59. ISBN: 9780807829165.

Lombardo, Paul, and Gregory Dorr. "Eugenics, Medical Education, and the Public Health Service: Another Perspective on the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment." Bulletin of the History of Medicine 80 (Spring 2006): 291-316.

(PDF)
15Slippery Slopes

Amazon logo Hartogh, Govert Den. "The Slippery Slope Argument." In A Companion to Bioethics. Edited by P. Singer and H. Kuhse. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1998. ISBN: 9780631197379.

16Genetic Engineering

Rogers, Michael. "The Pandora's Box Congress." Rolling Stone 189 (June 19, 1975): 37-40, 42, 74, 77-78, and 82.

Amazon logo Mendelsohn, Everett. "Frankenstein at Harvard: The Public Blackwell Publishers - Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers Policies of Recombinant DNA Research." In Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences. Edited by Everett Mendelsohn. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 317-335. ISBN: 9780521524858.

(PDF)
17The UnnaturalMill, J. S. "Nature." From Three Essays on Religion. (1874) (PDF)
Topic 4: Who Gets Treated?
18Valuing Lives IMill, J. S. "Utilitarianism." (1863, with revisions through 1879) (PDF)
19Valuing Lives IIMill, J. S. "Utilitarianism." (contd.)
20Valuing Lives IIIAmazon logo Harris, John. "The Value of Life." In The Value of Life: An Introduction to Medical Ethics. New York, NY: Routledge, 1990, pp. 87-102. ISBN: 9780415040327.
21Organ Transplants

Annas, George J. "The Prostitute, the Playboy, and the Poet: Rationing Schemes for Organ Transplantation." American Journal of Public Health 72 (1985): 187-189.

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. "The Global Traffic in Human Organs." Current Anthropology 41 (April 2000): 191-211.

Steinbrock, Robert. "Public Solicitation of Organ Donors." New England Journal of Medicine 353 (August 4, 2005): 441-444.

(PDF)
22Disease and Responsibility

Knowles, John H. "The Responsibility of the Individual." Daedalus 106 (1977): 57-80.

Szasz, Thomas. "Bad Habits Are Not Diseases: A Refutation of the Claim that Alcoholism is a Disease." The Lancet (July 8, 1972): 83-84.

Nelkin, Dorothy, and M. Susan Lindee. "Elvis' DNA: The Gene as Cultural Icon." The Humanist 55 (May/June 1995): 10-19.

(PDF)
23Public Health and Individual Rights

Parmet, Wendy E., Richard A. Goodman, and Amy Farber. "Individual Rights versus the Public's Health -- 100 Years after Jacobson v. Massachusetts." New England Journal of Medicine 352 (February 17, 2005): 652-654.

Colgrove, James, and Ronald Bayer. "Manifold Restraints: Liberty, Public Health, and the Legacy of Jabobson v Massachusetts." American Journal of Public Health 95 (April 2005): 571-576.

Annas, George J. "Bioterrorism, Public Health, and Civil Liberties." New England Journal of Medicine 346 (April 25, 2002): 1337-1342.

Fritz, Mark. "A Doctor's Fight: More Forced Care for the Mentally Ill." Wall Street Journal (February 1, 2006).

Santora, Marc. "City Orders Labs to Submit Data From Tests of Diabetics." New York Times (December 15, 2005).

(PDF)
24Rationing and Health Care Policy

Mariner, Wendy. "Rationing Health Care and the Need for Credible Scarcity: Why Americans Can't Say No." American Journal of Public Health 85 (October 1995): 1435-1445.

Ubel, Peter A. "Dose Response: Intelligent rationing by physicians is the first step to a health-care system that society can afford." The Sciences (November/December 1999): 18-23.

(PDF)
25Conclusions
26Conclusions (cont.)



Background Readings


Hippocratic Oath. (Translated by Heinrich von Staden.)

AMA Code of Ethics, 1847. (PDF)

AMA Principles of Medical Ethics, 2001.

Health and Ethics Policies of the AMA House of Delegates.


 








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