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143Who shall be allowed to give? Living organ donors and the concept of autonomyTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 22 (4): 351-368. 2001.Free and informed consent is generally acknowledged as the legal andethical basis for living organ donation, but assessments of livingdonors are not always an easy matter. Sometimes it is necessary toinvolve psychosomatics or ethics consultation to evaluate a prospectivedonor to make certain that the requirements for a voluntary andautonomous decision are met. The paper focuses on the conceptualquestions underlying this evaluation process. In order to illustrate howdifferent views of autonomy in…Read more
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70The Logical Status of Brain Death CriteriaJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 10 (4): 387-396. 1985.This article is an attempt to clarify a confusion in the brain death literature between logical sufficiency/necessity and natural sufficiency/necessity. We focus on arguments that draw conclusions regarding empirical matters of fact from conceptual or ontological definitions. Specifically, we critically analyze arguments by Tom Tomlinson and Michael B. Green and Daniel Wikler. which, respectively, confuse logical and natural sufficiency and logical and natural necessity. Our own conclusion is th…Read more
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169What kind of doing is clinical ethics?Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 26 (1): 7-24. 2004.This paper discusses the importance of Richard M. Zaners work on clinical ethics for answering the question: what kind of doing is ethics consultation? The paper argues first, that four common approaches to clinical ethics – applied ethics, casuistry, principlism, and conflict resolution – cannot adequately address the nature of the activity that makes up clinical ethics; second, that understanding the practical character of clinical ethics is critically important for the field; and third, that …Read more
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8What Kind of Doing is Clinical Ethics?Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 26 (1): 7-24. 2005.This paper discusses the importance of Richard M. Zaner’s work on clinical ethics for answering the question: what kind of doing is ethics consultation? The paper argues first, that four common approaches to clinical ethics – applied ethics, casuistry, principlism, and conflict resolution – cannot adequately address the nature of the activity that makes up clinical ethics; second, that understanding the practical character of clinical ethics is critically important for the field; and third, that…Read more
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51When consent is unbearable: an alternative case analysisJournal of Medical Ethics 5 (1): 26-28. 1979.Dr Agich takes up a previous difficult case related by Dr Kottow in an earlier issue of the Journal. He analyses the three ethical problems as presented in the case and offers his own opinion of it as well as his own conclusions with regard to the medical ethical aspects of it. Unlike Dr Kottow, Dr Agich's reading of the case indicates that the application of the principle of informed consent does not rule out ethical decisions for the physician, but emphasizes the relevance of ethical analysis …Read more
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18Why Quality is so Rarely Addressed in Clinical Ethics ConsultationCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 18 (4): 339-346. 2009.
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50The question of method in ethics consultationAmerican Journal of Bioethics 1 (4). 2001.This paper offers an exposition of what the question of method in ethics consultation involves under two conditions: when ethics consultation is regarded as a practice and when the question of method is treated systematically. It discusses the concept of the practice and the importance of rules in constituting the actions, cognition, and perceptions of practitioners. The main body of the paper focuses on three elements of the question of method: canon, discipline, and history, which are treated …Read more
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23Truth in Advertising: Reasonable Versus Unreasonable Claims About Improving Ethics ConsultationAmerican Journal of Bioethics 16 (3): 25-26. 2016.
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37The importance of management for understanding managed careJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 24 (5). 1999.This paper argues that the concept of management is critically important for understanding managed care. A proper interpretation of management is needed before a positive account of the ethics of managed care can be constructed. The paper discusses three aspects of management: administrative, clinical, and resource management, and compares the central commitments of traditional medical practice with those of managed care for each of these aspects. In so doing, the distinctive conceptual features…Read more
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82The foundation of medical ethicsTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 2 (1): 31-34. 1981.Thomasma and Pellegrino''s [3] focus on the healing relationship as the way to give medical ethics a philosophical foundation contains a number of difficulties. Most importantly, their approach focuses philosophical analysis on an idealized view of the healing relationship in which the ideal of health is seen as an uncontroversial norm in the individual case. medical ethics is then characterized as an intrinsic part of the medical act itself. Philosophical inquiry seems limited to a description …Read more
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28The importance of management for understanding managed careJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 24 (5): 518-534. 1999.
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25Review of Linda Farber Post, Jeffrey Blustein, and Nancy Neveloff Dubler, Handbook for Healthcare Ethics Committees (review)American Journal of Bioethics 7 (6): 66-67. 2007.No abstract
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11Truth and Communication in Ethics ConsultationAmerican Journal of Bioethics 21 (5): 31-33. 2021.In “Deception and the Clinical Ethicist,” Christopher Meyers defends that view that deception practiced by clinical ethicists is legitimate if it satisfies a series of justifying conditions (Meyers...
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74Reflections on the function of dignity in the context of caring for old peopleJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 32 (5). 2007.This article accepts the proposition that old people want to be treated with dignity and that statements about dignity point to ethical duties that, if not independent of rights, at least enhance rights in ethically important ways. In contexts of policy and law, dignity can certainly have a substantive as well as rhetorical function. However, the article questions whether the concept of dignity can provide practical guidance for choosing among alternative approaches to the care of old people. Th…Read more
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1The Development and Rationale for CECA’s Case-Based Study GuideJournal of Clinical Ethics 29 (2): 158-161. 2018.This article discusses the approach of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Advisory Committee (CECA) in developing A Case-Based Study Guide for Addressing Patient-Centered Ethical Issues in Health Care. This article addresses the processes used by the CECA, its use of pivot questions intended to encourage critical reflection, and the target audience of this work. It first considers the salience of case studies in general education and their relevance for training ethics consultants. Second, it disc…Read more
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13Silence: The Phenomenon and its Ontological Significance, by Bernard P. DauenhauerJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 16 (1): 105-105. 1985.
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56Response to “From Pittsburgh to Cleveland: NHBD Controversies and Bioethics” by George J. Agich (CQ Vol 8, No 3)Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 8 (4): 517-523. 1999.Frank Koughan and Walt Bogdanich's response to my article, reminds me of the Shakespearean line, My article was not about the specifics of the 60Minutes April 13, 1997, story on NHBD at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), even though the story formed the basis for the reflection. I did not attack the critics, though I do believe that bioethicists are accountable for their scholarly and public pronouncements. Although I do not see why the 60Minutes' story should be treated with deference, my a…Read more
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57Reassessing Autonomy in Long‐Term CareHastings Center Report 20 (6): 12-17. 1990.The realities of long‐term care call for a refurbished, concrete concept of autonomy that systematically attends to the history and development of persons and takes account of the experiences of daily living.
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108Professionalism and ethics in health careJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 5 (3): 186-199. 1980.
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39Roles and responsibilities: Theoretical issues in the definition of consultation liaison psychiatryJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 10 (2): 105-126. 1985.Central to much medical ethical analysis is the concept of the role of the physician. While this concept plays an important role in medical ethics, its function is largely tacit. The present paper attempts to bring the concept of a social role to prominence by focusing on an historically recent and rather richly contextured role, namely, that of consultation liaison psychiatry. Since my intention is primarily theoretical, I largely ignore the empirical studies which purport to develop the detail…Read more
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19Knowing One’s Way Around: The Challenge of Identifying and Overseeing Innovations in Patient CareAmerican Journal of Bioethics 19 (6): 1-3. 2019.Volume 19, Issue 6, June 2019, Page 1-3.
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23L. W. Beck’s Proposal of Meta-Critique and the “Critique of Judgment”Kant Studien 74 (3): 261-270. 1983.