This book, edited and written by leading scholars in the field(s) of neuroscience, ethics, law and healthcare policy, provides a unifying perspective of how a philosophical understanding of pain and medicine gives rise to the ethics and policies of pain care. Toward these ends, the chapters shed light on how pain and the experience of the patient and clinician establish the moral obligations of pain medicine, and the conditions necessary to enact pain care on a global scale. In this context, the authors consider possible ethical systems and approaches that are important to, and viable for pain medicine, and provide perspectives into the ways that moral obligations and practical realties are wedded to (and should underscore) any and all practice guidelines, health policy, and laws. In these ways, this volume provides erudite discussions of how contemporary knowledge of pain could and should influence the moral values, and conduct, tenor and value(s) of medical practice, and how this knowledge might serve as a foundation upon which to construct policies toward a more meaningful, patient-centered pain medicine in the future.
Dr. James Giordano, a neuroscientist and neuroethicist, was born and raised in New York City. He is Professor of Integrative Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry, is Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program in the Center for Clinical Bioethics, and is on the faculty of the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA. He is C.L. Clark Fellow in Neurosciences and Ethics at the Human Science Center of Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany, and was 2011-2012 JW Fulbright Foundation Professor of Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Ethics on the medical faculty of Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich, Germany. As well, Dr. Giordano is 2012-2014 William H. and Ruth Crane Schaefer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Neuroethics at Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, and is a Senior Fellow of the Board of Regents of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, VA, USA.
His ongoing research addresses the molecular and behavioral neuroscience of pain and analgesia, the neurophilosophy of pain and mind, the neuroethics of pain research and treatment, and the ethical issues arising in and from advancements in science and biotechnology. Prof. Giordano's books include "Neurotechnology: Premises, Potential and Problems" (CRC Press); "Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives in Neuroethics" (with Bert Gordijn; Cambridge University Press); "Maldynia: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives on the Illness of Chronic Pain" (Taylor-Francis/Informa), "Pain Medicine: Philosophy, Ethics, and Policy" (with Mark Boswell, Linton Atlantic Books), and "Pain: Mind, Meaning, and Medicine" (PPM Books) - soon to be released in its second, revised edition by Catsworth Press.
He and his wife Sherry, an artist, editor, and naturalist, divide their time between Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, USA and the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz, south of Munich, Germany.
