Troubled Bodies: Medical Ethics in the Postmodern Era

Ten contributors from diverse backgrounds examine how modern medicine regards the human body and its relationship with other aspects of our culture.

With transplant surgery, abortion, and radical new technologies for human reproduction and prolonging life as part of our everyday experience, the need to consider ethical issues in medicine almost goes without saying. But the field of traditional biomedical ethics attracts plenty of criticism for its narrow theoretical perspectives and its ignorance of wider philosophical concerns. Troubled Bodies breaks new ground by placing medical ethics in a broad framework of philosophical and cultural analysis. Ten contributors with diverse backgrounds, including medicine and philosophy, biology and social theory, examine how modern medicine regards the human body and its intimate relationship with other aspects of our culture. Certain to provoke vigorous debate, this collection seeks to expand ethical reflection on medicine to include current concerns about the body and the implications of the newer medical technologies for society as a whole.