Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction

Issues in medical ethics, from moral dilemmas related to euthanasia and the morality of killing, to political dilemmas such as the fair distribution of healthcare, are rarely off the radar of today's media. This area of ethics covers a wide range of issues, from mental health to reproductive medicine, as well as governance issues such as resource allocation, and has proven to be of enduring interest to the public as well as to practitioners. This very short introduction provides an invaluable tool for thinking about the ethical values that underpin medicine. This new edition explores the ethical reasoning that can be used to approach medical ethics, presenting the key 'tools' of ethical reasoning and discussing how argumentation, thought experiments and intuition can be combined in considering medical ethics. Considering its practical application, Tony Hope and Michael Dunn explore how medical ethics supports health professionals through the increasing use of ethical knowledge in clinical settings. They also reflect on the increasingly important place of medical ethics in the wider social context, particularly in the age of globalisation, not only in healthcare practice, but also in politics, media discussions, pressure and activist groups and judicial decisions.