Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases That Have Shaped Medical Ethics, with Philosophical, Legal, and Historical Backgrounds [Paperback]

Gregory Pence (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072829354 | ISBN-13: 978-0072829358 | Publication Date: July 15, 2003 | Edition: 4

This rich collection, popular among teachers and students alike, provides an in-depth look at major cases that have shaped the field of medical ethics. The book presents each famous (or infamous) case using extensive historical and contextual background, and then proceeds to illuminate it by careful discussion of pertinent philosophical theories and legal and ethical issues.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gregory Pence is one of the pioneering bioethicists of America. Having taught for thirty years in a medical school, he has seen many past prophecies of doom fail. He is optimistic about biotechnology.

He is internationally famous for defending cloning and genetically modified food against bioLuddites who oppose research on stem cells and cloning. Because of his views, his talks have been picketed by Greenpeace and anti-cloning zealots.

His Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of the Cases that Shaped Medical Ethics, 4th ed., 2003, is one of the standard textbooks of bioethics. His Who's Afraid of Human Cloning? (1998) is already regarded as a classic in bioethics for its rigorous attack on opponents of cloning. His Cloning After Dolly: Who's STILL Afraid of Human Cloning? will appear in late 2004. His Designer Food: Mutant Harvest or Breadbasket of the World? won a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2003.

He doesn't think the sky will fall if a cloned baby is born. In opposing laws against cloning, he was asked to testify in 2001 before Congress and in 2002 before the California Senate.

Constantly in demand for national television, Pence has been interviewed on Bobby Battista's "Talk Back Live" with Bobby Battista, "The Point" with Gretta von Susteren on CNN, "The Early Show with Bryant Gumbel" on CBS, "Wolf Blitzer's Washington" on CNN, as well as on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" and its "Weekend Edition." He has also been interviewed by TIME magazine, the New York Times, and most national publications. He has published in Newsweek, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

Pence has given the Soundings Lecture at Castleton State College, VT, the Thornton Lecture at Alma College, MI, the Seidman Trust Lecture at Rhodes College, TN, and the Hughes Memorial Lecture at West Liberty State College in WVA. He has talked at Princeton, Yale, and Stanford. He has given keynote talks about cloning at universities in Portugal, London, Switzerland, and Australia.

Pence teaches at the medical school at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB), where he also directs a program for gifted undergraduates pre-admitted to UAB medical school. There, he has been voted Best Teacher.

He grew up in Washington, D.C., was graduated from the College of William and Mary cum laude in Philosophy, and earned his doctorate from New York University in 1974, where he worked on his dissertation under bioethicist Peter Singer, now at Princeton University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 4 edition (July 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072829354
• ISBN-13: 978-0072829358
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Medical Ethics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Biased and Inaccurate, February 13, 2006

By 

B. Buckley "Perennial Student" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases That Have Shaped Medical Ethics, with Philosophical, Legal, and Historical Backgrounds (Paperback)

As the professor of a Health Care Ethics class, I must admit to being very disappointed in this book. The first chapter's definitions of classical ethical theories is dense and not helpful at all. I didn't even have the students read it. But, as a lawyer and someone finishing his PhD in philosophy, it is the abortion chapter that I found to be quite troubling. He selectively uses quotations and selectively lays out arguments in order to refute the position he doesn't agree with. Here it is the anti-abortion position. I tell my students that the true philosopher is he or she who can see the other side's complete argument and can restate it even better than they. It is only such a person who can make an informed ethical decision. This text does not adhere to that intellectually honest principle.

Here are a few examples of where either the facts are wrong or the text is slanted. The introduction to the abortion chapter lays out a "history" of the debate and basically says that abortion was legal until men sought to show women their place and until the Catholic Church engaged in a war against science. He really says this--see p. 125. "As the church retreated from science during the period from about 1869 to 1900, it encouraged attention to Mary (who had been neglected), supported 'creationism' against geological explanations of the origins of the universe, emphasized miracles (the miracle of Fatima was recognized shortly after the First Vatican Council), and vigorously attacked Darwinism." Not only is most of this historically inaccurate or incomplete, it certainly has no place in a textbook, let alone one on Health Care Ethics. (By the way, Fatima was in 1917 and the First Vatican Council ended in 1870. When does something 47 years later become "shortly after"? Numberwise, 47 years ago was 1959. Would we say that events in 2006 occurred "shortly after" something that happened in 1959? That's my point. You have to go way out of your way to be this biased--and it has no place in a textbook!) Further, he says on p.137 that the fetus does not have brain waves until the 25th week of gestation. He states this without a footnote. In fact, the fetus has detectable brain waves between the 40th and 43rd day post-conception. That is the end of the sixth week. (See Eric Olson's _The Human Animal: Personal Identity without Psychology_ and John Kavanaugh's _Who Count as Persons_.) Nor does he address questions about a beating heart, fingerprints, or the ability to feel pain. These are all marks of a person and should be part of any intellectually honest discussion of abortion. His discussion of the potentiality question relies very heavily on the legal definition of a "person," but never says why that matters. A 1-day old baby is a "person" under the law, but has no sense of self and is not rational. Why then is it protected but the 2-week old fetus is not? He says the difference is that one is a "person" and one is not. The problem is that that is a legal definition, under a 14th Amendment analysis. It, however, does nothing to dispute Noonan, as he suggests that it does on p. 137. Listen to how bad his reasoning is: "However, having the potential to become a person is not being a person, as we realize when we consider the thousands of frozen embryos...[Also, this argument] collapses the distinction between being human and being a person." The problem is, however, that he has never told us why the fetus is not a person. He just assumes it--basically saying, "Well the law says it's not a person, so it's not a person." What kind of reasoning is that? Reader, I suggest you pore over Chapter 5 closely and tell me if you find anywhere where he offers an ARGUMENT of why a fetus is not a person and a 1-day old child is. He doesn't because it's not part of his agenda.

I could go on an on, about what he chose to talk about and what he chose to ignore, about what he chose to characterize fully and what he chose to caricature. I think that the book has some strong points, but just don't go into it expecting a full and philosophical, let alone historical, discussion of an ethical issue.

As a professor, I could easily present slanted arguments and try to sway students. One of the reasons I chose this textbook, however, was because I wanted something decidedly neutral. I wanted the students to *think* and see clearly the issues on both sides. Toward that end, I have been very disappointed.

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine job of writing for a difficult topic!, October 9, 2000

By 

K. L Sadler "Dr. Karen L. Sadler" (Freedom, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases That Have Shaped Medical Ethics (Paperback)

I am researching bioethics and especially eugenics in the United States as far as it concerns the Deaf and Hard-of-hearing. Because I work in the university bookstore, I went to see what the classes which teach bioethics are using for textbooks. Dr. Pence's books were being used, and as I looked through them, I could see he dealt with many of the topics I am concerned with...allocations of scarce resources, infant non-treatment on the basis of disability, and the worth that our society puts on the life of someone with a disability. (Nice story about a Deaf-mute who wasn't informed he was going to be the experiment for piggybacking a chimp heart).

Dr. Pence is an excellent writer. This book was an easy and interesting read. It told details concerning prominent cases that I didn't know, and he gives the references to everything, so that makes my research much easier.

Again, this is one of those books that is a must-read for medical students, anyone in public health, educators, and the disabled. Knowledge is power. We can only protect ourselves in the medical community when we know about the conflicts of interests that doctors and researchers face, and how ethicists and politicians perceive not only the disabled, but everyone. In this new world where the Human Genome Project is almost finished, and doctors are already clamoring for testing of all newborns (and fetuses), and there are no protective laws on the books against discrimination...it is very apparent we may possibly have another eugenic movement on our hands. It is up to all of us as informed readers to read someone like Pence and get involved with legislation to stop this from occurring again. Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best way to begin studying bioethics, October 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases That Have Shaped Medical Ethics, With Philosophical, Legal, and Historical Backgrounds (Paperback)

We used this book in my medical school class and I enjoyed it very much. Pence came to Illinois this year to debate human cloning and I was impressed with him. I especially liked this book because you get all the details and context of the cases (we also used another book on principles and theories, which was pretty boring). If you only read two chapters, read the one on Karen Quinlan and the one on the Tuskegee syphilis study. Both blew my mind.