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Stewards of Life: Bioethics and Pastoral Care

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This book's contribution is to illuminate (carefully, clearly, concisely, in simple yet stirring terms) the difference which being a Christian makes for those who are faced with biomedical issues and/or decisions, whether as ethicists, pastors, chaplains, patients or family of patients. It's a book you can use 'on the firing line', in the immediate area suggested by its title, but one which also stimulates thinking at a more general level (what difference does being a Christian make in the context of _business_ decisionmaking? of family?) and which, through analogy at least, points out a useful approach in these broader contexts.

Introduction: Playing God or Struggling to Be Human?: Bioethics and Christian Faith-- Chapter 1: Christian Faith, Ethics, and the Moral Practice of Medicine-- Why Ethics Is a Bad Place to Start; God's Story and Christian Character; The Correlative Virtues; Moral Conversation in the New Testament-- Chapter 2: The Language of Bioethics: Philosophical Principles and Christian Convictions; Autonomy; Non-maleficence; Beneficence; and Justice-- Chapter 3: Thinking Through Conflicts: Using Principles in Hard Cases-- The Limits of Aggressive Treatment: Intubating the Elderly and Critically Ill; The Limits of Aggressive Treatment: Surgery for the Very Premature Infant; Artificial Feeding and Futility: Treating a Stroke Victim; Choosing Death: Food Refusal as a Means of "Self-Deliverance"-- Chapter 4: Discernment and Witness: The Roles of the Pastor in Medical Crisis-- The Ministry of Presence; The Minister as Interpreter; Partner in Discernment; and Witness to the Gospel--

Conclusion: "Awaiting the Redemption of Our Bodies": The Limits of Medicine and Bioethics