Historical Dictionary of Medical Ethics

Medical morality has three components. Doctors, patients, communities and policy makers have beliefs about what is good and bad behaviour in patient care, biomedical research, medical education and health policy. Based on these beliefs, doctors, patients, communities and policy makers make judgements about how doctors should act in patient care, research, education and health policy making and implementation. They then act on their judgements. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Medical Ethics includes a chronology, an introduction and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1,000 cross-references on ethical reasoning and its key elements.