Title: If I were a rich man could I buy a pancreas? : and other essays on the ethics of health care /
Authors: Caplan, Arthur L.
Publisher: Indiana University Press,
Year: 1992
Subjects: Medical ethics.; Bioethics.; Ethics, Medical; Bioethics
Abstract: Arthur L. Caplan has been an important voice in bioethics for many years. In a great number of essays and articles he has taken on some of the most pressing issues in bioethics today. This book brings his most important work together with new essays on autonomy in nursing homes and on the ethical issues raised by the mapping and sequencing of the human genome. In an introductory essay Caplan updates some of his views and responds to criticisms. Caplan begins with a discussion the nature of work in applied ethics. He rejects the view that those who do bioethics or any other version of applied ethics are merely the servants of moral theoreticians. Next, Caplan examines some of the tough moral questions raised by the use of animals in biomedical research. While not recognizing that animals have rights, he argues for more humane treatment when they are used in scientific research. In a group of essays on human experimentation, Caplan studies such issues as privacy and the obligation to serve as a voluntary subject in medical experimentation. In subsequent essays, he explores the frontiers of medicine in genetics, reproductive technology, and transplantation and reviews the challenges posed to the American health care system as the population grows older. Caplan concludes by confronting the pressing public policy issues of cost containment and rationing. He rejects the view that rationing is the only means available for reducing the escalating costs of health care and suggests strategies that would control costs while affording access to basic medical care for every American.
Contents: pt. I: The nature of applied ethics. Can applied ethics be effective in health care and should it strive to be? -- Moral experts and moral expertise : Does either exist? -- pt. II: Ethical issues in animal and human experimentation. Beastly conduct : ethics issues in animal experimentation -- Moral community and the responsibility of scientists -- On privacy and confidentiality in social science research -- Is there a duty to serve as a subject in biomedical research? -- pt. III: Advances in reproduction and genetics. New technologies in reproduction, new ethical problems -- Mapping morality : ethics and the human genome project -- pt. IV: Transplants and other unnatural acts. Requests, gifts, and obligations : the ethics of organ procurement -- If I were a rich man, could I buy a pancreas? : problems in the policies and criteria used to allocate organs for transplantation in the United States -- Ethical issues raised by research involving xenografts -- pt. V: Aging, chronic illness, and rehabilitation. Is aging a disease? -- Let wisdom find a way : the concept of competency in the care of the elderly -- Is medical care the right prescription for chronic illness? -- Informed consent and provider/patient relationships in rehabilitation medicine -- Can autonomy be saved? -- pt. VI: Money, medicine, and morality. The high cost of technological development : a caveat for policymakers -- Hard data is the only answer to hard choices in health care -- Ethics, cost-containment, and the allocation of scarce resources.