The Basics of Bioethics

by Robert M. Veatch

The third edition of The Basics of Bioethics continues to provide a balanced and systematic ethical framework to help students analyze a wide range of controversial topics in medicine, and consider ethical systems from various religious and secular traditions. The Basics of Bioethics covers the “Principalist” approach and identifies principles that are believed to make behavior morally right or wrong. It showcases alternative ethical approaches to health care decision making by presenting Hippocratic ethics as only one among many alternative ethical approaches to health care decision-making. The Basics of Bioethics offers case studies, diagrams, and other learning aids for an accessible presentation. Plus, it contains an all-encompassing ethics chart that shows the major questions in ethics and all of the major answers to these questions.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, Textbooks

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 11, 1999

Reviews

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't express how much I've enjoyed being in the class that this book is required for. I feel like I've learned new viewpoints to different discussions and I've really learned that a lot of situations are not black and white, but fall into a grey area that can be hard to address. I thought I had concrete ideas about certain topics before the class, vaccinations, abortion, death with dignity, but the class really helped challenge my held ideals and learn more about opposing positions.

I thought this was a great intro book for introducing the concepts and ethical principles with their applications in bioethics. It wasn't a difficult book to read and I found the content to be interesting, much unlike various other books I have been assigned this term. Some terms take a few times of reading over to understand the meaning, but other than that it is actually very entertaining.

[Aidan Gibson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Damn bro get a proofreader next time lol

Half a brain cell would be nice too xoxo

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I think) this is a solid, brief introduction to bioethics. It explains the difficulties the field has encountered between highly theoretical ethics (metaethics) and highly practical ethics (cases and casuistry), and that the resolution of the difficulty appears to be that before adopting a particular ethic, it needs to be run through all levels to see how it operates and how it challenges other accepted ethical thinking or practice.

(I believe) I'm beginning to understand how social considerations may be ethical considerations, although it is difficult to leave ethics that focus solely on the individual behind. Weighing individual duties and rights against society is clearly challenging (and part of what the healthcare debate is about).

This book also provided a place for me to think about how we make trade-offs between values on a constant basis. Our well-being is about maximizing that trade-off. Some do it well and some do it poorly. This is also a part of the healthcare debate, but on a social level--how does society make value trade-offs between health and other goods? (I guess) I'll have a whole career to consider these questions further...

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to prepare for medical school interviews, and it was a great help in introducing me to a vast range of issues grouped under medical ethics. It started off with the levels of moral discourse, explaining the theoretical aspect of discussing ethics, and then went on to discuss the Hippocratic Oath, including its variations and objections to the Oath. It also presented the various viewpoints in a systematic manner, discussing consequentialist (beneficence and non-maleficence) and duty-based principles on both an individual and a social level, and illustrated how different priorities might conflict with one another. The book also covered a range of specific modern-day ethical issues, from death, abortion and advance directives to birth technologies on the other end of the spectrum of life. It then attempted to show ways that conflicts might be resolved, through a mixture of balancing and ranking priorities.

This is The Basics of Bioethics and so it would be unreasonable to expect an in-depth coverage of ethical issues, but it is an excellent and orderly introduction to the differing viewpoints in bioethics, and it is for the most part quite objective as well.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I've read/been taught ethics that came off completely unbiased. It was amazing. Even on topics that were very iffy like abortion, I was waiting for him to cross the line...but he maintained his balance on the fence. I'm incredibly impressed.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic introduction to bioethics from a trailblazer in the field. He covers both the accepted principles and the major controversies in a succinct fashion. This is definitely a textbook, but it reads very easily, and the liberal use of case studies brings the controversies to life.

[Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative. So far the most comprehensive book on bioethics I ever read.