Bioethics: Principles, Issues, and Cases

by Lewis Vaughn

Principles, Issues, and Cases, Third Edition, explores the philosophical, medical, social, and legal aspects of key bioethical issues. Opening with a thorough introduction to ethics, bioethics, and moral reasoning, it then covers influential moral theories and the criteria for
evaluating them. Integrating eighty-nine readings--twelve of them new to this edition--numerous classic bioethical cases, and abundant pedagogical tools, this text addresses the most provocative and controversial topics in bioethics.

PEDAGOGICAL

"Classic Case Files" describe landmark cases that shaped the debate, while news-making "Cases for Evaluation" encourage students to form their own opinions

Various text "In Depth" boxes contain additional material, illustrations, or analyses, much of it "ripped from the headlines"; "Fact File" boxes provide statistics on the social, medical, and scientific facets of a chapter's topic; and "Legal Brief" boxes summarize important court rulings and
the status of major legislation

"Key Terms" are boldfaced and boxed off within the text and then defined in a glossary at the back of the book

"Applying Major Theories" sections at the end of each chapter help students relate theories to the issues

Genres: Philosophy, School, Law, Biology, Textbooks

832 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly good textbook, but dumbs down a lot of the basic ethical theories. This is something that would have been more useful for an early undergrad (freshman or sophomore) than graduate school.

[Emma M.]

I genuinely could not stand this class and the textbook was only helpful for the essay.

[Liesl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text is ok. It attempts to appear unbiased but clearly favors certain views and misrepresents others. It is useful as a resource for primary readings and case studies though.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good introductory text to theory and current issues at play in the field, providing a broad topic overview and well chosen readings specific to the topic from a variety of perspectives. Vaughn does a good job of weaving in different ethical theories as they apply to the topic at hand, making it a great springboard for further reading into areas of particular interest.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting textbooks with opinions on both sides of many important morals issues.

[Gavin]

Read this for my bioethics class. Great resource for articles on topics from abortion to autonomy.

[Jason Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explained the fundamentals of bioethics in easily understandable terms to me, a complete novice. The case studies were riveting and connected well to the content. I wish more textbooks were written like this one. It's the sort of textbook which is so well-written that you could read it for fun.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I read ethics material, the more I am convinced that ethics begins and ends at the presupposition of the laws of God.