Humana Is There a Duty to die? (Biomedical Ethics Reviews)

Product Description The question of whether there might be a duty to die was first raised by Margaret Battin in 1987 in her ground-breaking essay, "Age Distribution and the Just Distribution of Health Care: Is There a Duty to-Die?" In 1997 the issue was reprised when two new articles appeared on the topic written by John Hardwig and the other by former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm. Given the renewed interest in the topic, as well as its undeniable importance, Biomedical Ethics Re views sought to initiate an in-depth discussion of the issue by soliciting articles and issuing a general call for papers on the topic "Is There a Duty to Die?" The twelve articles in this volume represent the ultimate fruits of those initiatives. The first seven essays in this text are sympathetic to the claim that there is a duty to die. They argue either: (a) that some form of a duty to die exists, or (b) that arguments that might be offered against the existence of such a duty cannot be sustained. By way of contrast, the last five articles in the text are critical of duty-to-die claims: The authors of the first three of these five articles attempt to cast doubt on the existence of a duty to die, and the writers of the last two essays argue that if such a duty did exist, severe problems would arise when ever we attempted to implement it. Review "Twelve essays comprise the volume, the first seven broadly supportive of some version of a duty to die, the last five critical of the notion. ...In short, this is a thought-provoking volume." - Ethics From the Back Cover Although a legal and moral right to privacy is generally recognized in society, there is no agreement regarding how these rights should apply to medical information. In Privacy and Health Care, leading ethical, medical, legal, and philosophical thinkers debate the conflicting moral and legal demands for maintaining the privacy of health care records in an age of easy computer access to those records and growing pressure by insurance companies, public health agencies, and employers for personal health care data. The essays by Boleyn-Fitzgerald, Margo Goldman, and Bill Allen & Ray Moseley favor restrictions being placed upon access to medical information, whereas the chapters by David Korn and Mark Meany argue for the opposing view. An introductory article by Charity Scott delineates the principal legal and ethical issues on the general topic of medical privacy. Interdisciplinary and enlightening, Privacy and Health Care presents the latest moral and legal thinking for and against greater protection of the privacy of health care information, and advances this important issue to a new level of clarity and decision.