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‘Fundamentals of Critical Thinking in Health Care Ethics and Law’

New book by Jan Deckers, Bioethicist at Newcastle University

By lorrainep · December 19, 2023

As cutting-edge technologies continue to reshape the landscape of health care, we are faced with profound ethical and legal dilemmas on our journey towards a brighter future. This book invites you to develop your critical thinking skills in relation to a number of themes in bioethics and law, including our duties to care for each other, for nonhuman animals, and for the nonhuman world.

Topics include embryo research, abortion, end of life care, research ethics, cloning, and genetic engineering (table of contents below). Whilst the book engages with the law as a source of guidance and food for thought, unlike most publications in health care ethics and law, the emphasis is on the development of critical thinking skills in ethics. Each chapter ends with a list of questions that act as prompts in your own critical thinking journey.

Table of contents

Chapter 1: A short introduction to health care ethics and law

Chapter 2: Autonomy and its limits

Chapter 3: Duties of care, confidentiality, candour, and cost minimisation

Chapter 4: The creation and use of human embryos for human reproduction

Chapter 5: When is it acceptable to use non-human animals to promote human health?

Chapter 6: Research ethics

Chapter 7: Ethics in relation to pregnancy termination

Chapter 8: Is genetic engineering justified?

Chapter 9: Human embryo research in embryonic stem cell and cloning debates

Chapter 10: Ethical and legal issues related to the end of life

You can find a more extensive outline here.

To order a copy, click here. Published by Owl Press

If anyone would like a review copy, please feel free to get in touch with Jan: jan.deckers@newcastle.ac.uk