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531Bioethics as social philosophySocial Philosophy and Policy 19 (2): 113-125. 2002.When many people think of bioethics, they think of gripping issues in clinical medicine such as end-of-life decision-making, controversies in biomedical research such as that over work with stem cells, or issues in allocating scarce health-care resources such as organs or money. The term “bioethics” may evoke images of moral controversies being discussed on news programs and talk shows. But this “controversy of the day” focus often treats ethical issues in medicine superficially, for it addresse…Read more
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292Religion in Bioethics: A RebirthChristian Bioethics 8 (2): 163-174. 2002.Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J.; Religion in Bioethics: A Rebirth, Christian bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality, Volume 8, Issue 2, 1 January 2002, Pa.
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129After the fall: Particularism in bioethicsJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (6): 505-509. 1993.
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121"Human Life: Its Beginning and Development", International Federation of Catholic Universities: 1988 (review)Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 15 (6): 697. 1990.
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115The Crisis of Medicine: Philosophy and the Social Construction of MedicineKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 11 (1): 71-86. 2001.: During the past decade there has been a debate about the field of philosophy of medicine. The debate has focused on fundamental questions about whether the field exists and the nature of the field. This article explores the debate and argues that it has paid insufficient attention to the social dimensions of both philosophy and medicine. The article goes on to argue that by exploring this debate one can better understand some of the difficult questions facing contemporary medicine and health c…Read more
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87The Ecumenical and Non-Ecumenical Dialectic of Christian BioethicsChristian Bioethics 1 (2): 121-127. 1995.Non-ecumenical Christian bioethics will seem a strange category for many. The category relies on the recognition that bioethics mediates morality and ethics in healthcare. As such bioethics will have particular content. It is the content of a moral vision that both divides and unites. The enterprise of non-ecumenical Christian bioethics explores how Christians are both divided and united on the issues of bioethics. Non-ecumenical Christian bioethics is opposed to a facile ecumenism that reduces …Read more
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84Healthy Skepticism: The Emperor has Very Few ClothesJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 22 (4): 365-371. 1997.The role of an expert witness in ethics, as part of a legal proceeding, is examined in this essay. The essay argues that the use of such expertise rests on confusions about normative and non-normative ethics compounded by misunderstandings about the challenges of moral argument in secular, morally pluralistic societies
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82Moral authority, moral standing, and moral controversyJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (4): 347-350. 1993.
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81Toleration and moral diversity: Bosnia or pennsylvaniaJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 19 (2): 123-128. 1994.
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77Edmund D. Pellegrino: A biographical noteJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 15 (3): 243-244. 1990.
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75Health Care, Equality, and Inequality: Christian Perspectives and Moral DisagreementsChristian Bioethics 2 (3): 271-279. 1996.Equality is a concept that is often used in health care discussions about the allocation of resources and the design of health care systems. In secular discussions and debates the concept of equality is highly controverted and can take on many different specifications. One might think that Christians hold a common understanding of equality. A more careful study, though, makes it quite clear that equality is just as controversial among different Christian communities as it is in the secular world
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72More questions than answers: The commodification of health careJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 24 (3). 1999.The changing world of health care finance has led to a paradigm shift in health care with health care being viewed more and more as a commodity. Many have argued that such a paradigm shift is incompatible with the very nature of medicine and health care. But such arguments raise more questions than they answer. There are important assumptions about basic concepts of health care and markets that frame such arguments.
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70Concepts, comparisons, and controversiesJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (5): 431-436. 1993.
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60Patients: The Rosetta Stone in the Crisis of MedicineCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 14 (2): 168-176. 2005.At its root meaning a “crisis” is a separation. In our everyday lives we use the term crisis to designate a period of decision. A crisis is a moment of separation when one must make a decision about a direction. To make a crisis decision, a person needs some criteria or set of norms to guide the decisions that are made. Sometimes, at a moment of crisis decisionmaking, there is chaos when one does not know which norm to use in making a decision. Without some norm a crisis is a significant loss of…Read more
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56Principles, rules, duties, and babel: Bioethics in the face of postmodernityJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 17 (5): 483-485. 1992.
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55Conscience, referral, and physician assisted suicideJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (3): 323-328. 1993.Practices such as physician assisted suicide, even if legal, engender a range of moral conflicts to which many are oblivious. A recent proposal for physician assisted suicide provides an example by calling upon physicians opposed to suicide to refer patients to other, more sympathetic, physicians. However, the proposal does not address the moral concerns of those physicians for whom such referral would be morally objectionable. Keywords: collaboration, euthanasia, intrinsic evil, material cooper…Read more
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51Wittgenstein and the Mystical: Philosophy as an Ascetic Practice (review)Review of Metaphysics 50 (1): 188-188. 1996.In the postscript to Wittgenstein and the Mystical, Sontag notes that while most philosophers attend to Wittgenstein's technical work in logic and the philosophy of language, there is little attention given to his "life situation." Yet, Sontag argues throughout this fine book, understanding many of Wittgenstein's philosophical insights depends on understanding how the wider concerns of his life influenced and related to his philosophical concerns. While Wittgenstein was concerned with the clarit…Read more
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44Institutional integrity: Approval, toleration and holy war or 'always true to you in my fashion'Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (2): 211-220. 1991.The advent of moral pluralism in the post-modern age leads to a set of issues about how pluralistic societies can function. The questions of biomedical ethics frequently highlight the larger issues of moral pluralism and social cooperation. Reflection on these issues has focused on the decision making roles of the health care professionals, the patient, and the patient's family. One species of actor that has been neglected has been those institutions which are part of the public, secular realm a…Read more
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42The priesthood of bioethics and the return of casuistryJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 18 (1): 33-49. 1993.Several recent attempts to develop models of moral reasoning have attempted to use some form of casuistry as a way to resolve the moral controversies of clinical ethics. One of the best known models of casuistry is that of Jonsen and Toulmin who attempt to transpose a particular model of casuistry, that of Roman Catholic confessional practice, to contemporary moral disputes. This attempt is flawed in that it fails to understand both the history of the model it seeks to transpose and the morally …Read more
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39Institutional Identity, Integrity, and ConscienceKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 7 (4): 413-419. 1997.: Bioethics has focused on the areas of individual ethical choices--patient care--or public policy and law. There are, however, important arenas for ethical choices that have been overlooked. Health care is populated with intermediate arenas such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and health care systems. This essay argues that bioethics needs to develop a language and concepts for institutional ethics. A first step in this direction is to think about institutional conscience.
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38Death: A Persistent Controversial StateKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 6 (4): 378-381. 1996.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Death: A Persistent Controversial StateKevin Wm. Wildes S.J. (bio)Along with the moral questions surrounding research and experimentation, the moral questions of death and dying have ranked among the most central and formative sets of issues for the field of bioethics. While the questions of death and dying have a long history (Wildes 1996), the attempt to address them as secular questions is an element of what established bioethics …Read more
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37In Search of SoulBody, Soul, and BioethicsThe Christian Virtues in Medical PracticeHastings Center Report 27 (6): 47. 1997.
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34Hope--a necessary virtue for health careBioethics Forum 15 (1): 25-29. 1998.This article explores the feasibility of using an appeal to the virtues in bioethical analyses, and the difficulties posed by the fact that most virtues and especially hope, are embedded in particular traditions. Whose virtues, then, shall focus our analyses ? A brief description of Christian hope is used to argue that hope does play a major role in various health care venues and to suggest that the common elements in a secular account of the virtues can be found in an unbiased sharing of one's …Read more
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33Respondeo: Method and content in casuistryJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 19 (1): 115-119. 1994.James Tallmon has argued that my criticisms of Jonsen and Toulmin are ill founded. Tallmon argues that Jonsen and Toulmin argue for a method of rhetorical reasoning and not for a particular content. He argues that if one distinguishes the content and method of casuistry the Jonsen-Toulmin model can work. But Tallmon, like Jonsen and Toulmin, cannot escape the need for casuistry to have a content. Tallmon's response evidences that need since he assumes that there is a ‘Medical Community’ which ha…Read more
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30In the Light of the Splendor: Veritatis Splendor and Moral TheologyKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 4 (1): 13-25. 1994.In the last 25 years, Roman Catholic moral theology has debated issues ranging from the sources of moral theology to the role of ecclesiastical authority in moral theology. In 1993, Pope John Paul II issued his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor, which addresses issues in fundamental moral theology. The encyclical must be understood against the background of ongoing debates since Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical on birth control (Humanae Vitae). It is not clear what the impact of Veritatis Splen…Read more