Bioethics and the Human Goods: An Introduction to Natural Law Bioethics - Hardcover

This excellent book is an ideal read for the busy clinician. --Catholic Medical Quarterly An impressive and welcome book . . . This book [is] dialectically engaged with an important and influential strand of contemporary bioethics. --American Journal of Bioethics The authors have strongly established credibility in the field and this specific topic. . . . This book meets its primary objective and can act as a great introductory resource for graduate students interested in bioethics because the philosophical arguments are assessable. When compared to other philosophical books in bioethics, this one is accessible to readers outside of mainstream philosophical bioethics and, therefore, an important contribution to the field. --Doody's Book Review The book is well written and offers a different, much-needed voice in contemporary bioethics discussions. . . . [The authors] have largely accomplished the task they set for themselves [and] have presented a solid introduction to bioethics through the lens of natural law theory. --The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

In this concise and accessible introductory text Gomez-Lobo and Keown introduce a "human goods" approach to bioethics as an alternative to the dominant principle-based method in the field (best illustrated by Beauchamp and Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, OUP). Following Aristotle and the natural law tradition the authors demonstrate how an emphasis on human goods--such as health, life, family, friendship, work and play, the experience of beauty, knowledge, and integrity--provides a necessary context for difficult medical decisions and can help us understand critical issues at the beginning and end of life. The manuscript includes two parts: Foundations and Issues. In the Foundations section the authors explain how one can think about bioethics, offering definitions of ethics and ontology (the study of being) and prudential reasoning. In the Issues section they address genetics, abortion, infanticide, suicide and physician-assisted suicide, nutrition and hydration, and transplantation ethics. The book includes appendices featuring personal statements by Gomez-Lobo on the status of the human embryo and criteria for the determination of death.