In these essays, a diverse group of ethicists draw insights from both religious and feminist scholarship in order to propose creative new approaches to the ethics of medical care. While traditional ethics emphasizes rules, justice, and fairness, the contributors to this volume embrace an "ethics of care," which regards emotional engagement in the lives of others as basic to discerning what we ought to do on their behalf.
The essays reflect on the three related themes: community, narrative, and emotion. They argue for the need to understand patients and caregivers alike as moral agents who are embedded in multiple communities, who seek to attain or promote healing partly through the medium of storytelling, and who do so by cultivating good emotional habits. A thought-provoking contribution to a field that has long been dominated by an ethics of principle, Medicine and the Ethics of Care will appeal to scholars and students who want to move beyond the constraints of that traditional approach.
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART I: CARE, JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY
1. Are Care and Justice Distinct Virtues
John P. Reeder Jr.
2. Care and Justice as Moral Values for Nurses in an Era of Managed Care
Barbara Hilkert Andolsen
3. The Need for Integrating Care Ethics into Hospital Care: A Case Study
Christine E. Gudorf
PART II: CARE AND EMOTION
4. The Emotions of Care in Health Care
Edward Collins Vacek, SJ
5. The Psychology of Emotion and the Ethics of Care
Sidney Callahan
6. Caring for Girls and Women Who Are Considering Abortion: Rethinking Informed Consent
Diana Fritz Cates
PART III: CARE AND NARRATIVE
7. God and an Ethic of Care: On Being Immanuel
Russell B. Connors Jr. and Chris A. Franke
8. Communities of Care, of Trust, and of Healing
Paul F. Camenisch
9. Doubled in the Darkest Mirror: Practice and the Retold Narrative of the Jewish Burial Society
Laurie Zoloth
10. AIDS in East Tennessee: Medicine and Morals as Local Activities
Ruth L. Smith
Index
Reviews
"A sensitive and sensible exploration of important new directions in bioethics from several highly respected voices. . . . Their essays grip one’s attention and expand one’s horizons."—Lisa Cahill, Boston College
"Curious about what feminism, narrative, and the ethics of care mean for bioethics? Medicine and the Ethics of Care is an excellent place to begin satisfying that curiosity. Some of the voices are familiar and distinguished; some are new and exciting. All are worth reading."—Thomas H. Murray, president, The Hastings Center
About the Author
Diana Fritz Cates, an associate professor of ethics in the School of Religion at the University of Iowa, is author of Choosing to Feel: Virtue, Friendship, and Compassion for Friends.
Paul Lauritzen is a professor and the chair of the Department of Religious Studies and the director of the Program in Applied Ethics at John Carroll University. His books include Cloning and the Future of Human Embryo Research.
