In Beyond a Western Bioethics, physicians Angeles Tan Alora and Josephine M. Lumitao join eight other contributors to provide a comprehensive exploration of bioethical issues outside of the dominant American and western European model. Using the Philippines as a case study, they address how a developing country's economy, religion, and culture affect the bioethical landscape for doctors, patients, families, and the society as a whole.
American principles of medical ethics assume the primacy of individual autonomy, the importance of truth-telling, and secular standards of justice and morality. In the Philippines, these standards are often at odds with a culture in which family relationships take precedence over individualism, and ideas of community, friendship, and religion can deeply influence personal behavior. Pervasive poverty further complicates the equation. Contributors move from a general discussion of the moral vision informing health care decisions in the Philippines to an exploration of a wide range of specific cases: family planning, care of the elderly, organ transplants, death and dying, medical research, AIDS care, doctor-patient relationships, informed consent, and the allocation of scarce health-care resources.
Written for both students and professionals, the book provides a much-needed perspective on how medical ethics are practiced in a developing nation, and it successfully challenges the wisdom of global bioethical standards that do not account for local cultural and economic differences.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Leonardo Z. Legaspi
Preface
Edmund D. Pellegrino
From Western to Filipino Bioethics: An Acknowledgment in Gratitude for Having Been a Colleague in a Marvelous Intellectual and Moral Journey
H. Tristam Engelhardt
Western Bioethics Recondsidered: An Introduction
H. Tristam Engelhardt
Part I: FILIPINO BIOETHICS: THE FOUNDATIONS
An Introduction to an Authenticallyy Non-Western Bioethics
Angeles Tan Alora and Josephine M. Lumitao
Part II: THE ROLE OF THE FAMILY
The Family and Health Care Practices
Letty G. Kuan and Josephine M. Lumitao
The Family versus the Individual: Family Planning
Angeles Tan Alora, Danilo Tiong, and Josephine M. Lumitao
Care of the Elderly
Victoria Pusung
Part III: THE HEALTH CARE TEAM
Professional Relationships in Health Care
Antonio Cabezon, OP, Edna G. Monzon, and Angelica Francisco
Conscience and Health Care Practices: The Casde of the Philippines
Letty G. Kuan and Tamerlane Lana, OP
Honesty, Loyalty, and Cheating
Angeles Tan Alora
Philanthropy and Nepotism
Angelica Francisco
Part IV: FACING HARD CHOICES
Ethical Issues in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
Angeles Tan Alora and Mary Jean Villareal-Guno
AIDS in the Developing World: The Case of the Philippines
Josephine M. Lumitao
Human Organ Transplants
Danilo C. Tiong
Death and Dying
Josephine M. Lumitao
Part V: ALLOCATION AND JUSTICE
Allocation of Scarce Resources: macro-, Meso-, and Micro-Level Concerns
Angeles Tan Alora and Josephine Lumitao
Ethical Issues in Research
Angeles Tan Alora
A Tax on Luxury Health Cae, Generic Drugs, and a Proposal for a New Preferential Option for the Poor
Angeles Tan Alora
The Virtues and Vices of Dumping
Angeles Tan Alora
APPENDIX/BACKGROUND READINGS
In the Compassion of Jesus: A Pastoral Letter On AIDS
The Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines
Anti-Abortive Drugs Act of 1995
Tenth Congress of the Republic of the Philippines
The Patients' Rights Act of 1995
Tenth Congress of the Republic of the Philippines
Code of Ethics
Board of medicine
The Philippines
Angles Tan Alora and Josephine M. Lumitao
Glossary
Contributors
Index710 KIRO
Reviews
"Provides a fresh perspective on how medical ethics are developed and practiced in a developing nation. It successfully challenges the parochial wisdom of the notion of global bioethical standards. The volume argues effectively that in many situations a global bioethical standard makes no sense."—Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
"This book is a must-read for any bioethicist or health care professional hungry for new conceptual tools to improve bioethical reasoning and to motivate more humane health care practices and policies."—Rosemarie Tong, Distinguished Professor in Health Care Ethics, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
About the Author
Angeles Tan Alora, dean of the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, is author of Handbook in Bioethics (Bookmark, 1999) and editor of Casebook in Bioethics (Southeast Asian Center for Bioethics, 1993).
Josephine M. Lumitao is professor and chief of the histology section of the department of anatomy at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and is secretary of the Southeast Asian Center for Bioethics.
