Bioethics Reenvisioned: A Path toward Health Justice (Studies in Social Medicine)

Bioethics Reenvisioned: A Path toward Health Justice (Studies in Social Medicine)

Bioethics needs an expanded moral vision. Born in the ferment of the 1970s, the field responded to rapid developments in biomedical technology and injustices in clinical care and research. Since then, bioethics has predominantly focused on respect for autonomy, beneficence and nonmaleficence, and the zero-sum "lifeboat" ethics of distributive justice, applying these principles almost exclusively within the walls of medical institutions. It is now time for bioethics to take full account of the problems of health disparities and structural injustice that are made newly urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of climate change. This book shows why and how the field must embrace a broader and more meaningful view of justice, principally by incorporating the tools and insights of the social sciences, epidemiology, and public health. Nancy M. P. King, Gail E. Henderson, and Larry R. Churchill make the case for a more social understanding and application of justice, a deeper humility in assessing expertise in bioethics consulting, a broader and more relevant research agenda, and greater appreciation of the profound health implications of global warming. " Bioethics Reenvisioned: A Path toward Health Justice is a slender volume that packs a big punch. The book is a clarion call for bioethicists to engage with the explicit goal of achieving social justice and universal access to quality health care in the United States and beyond. Thoughtful, argumentative, and provocative, I fervently hope bioethicists and those outside the bioethics community will take up these timely and important challenges."--Jim Jones, author of Bad Blood An overdue reevaluation of bioethics in praxis Nancy M. P. King is professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Gail E. Henderson is professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Larry R. Churchill is professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University.