Bioethics and Disability provides tools for understanding the concerns, fears and biases that have convinced some people with disabilities that the health care setting is a dangerous place and some bioethicists that disability activists have nothing to offer bioethics. It wrestles with the charge that bioethics as a discipline devalues the lives of persons with disabilities, arguing that reconciling the competing concerns of the disability community and the autonomy-based approach of mainstream bioethics is not only possible, but essential for a bioethics committed to facilitating good medical decision making and promoting respect for all persons, regardless of ability. Through in-depth case studies involving newborns, children and adults with disabilities, it proposes a new model for medical decision making that is both sensitive to and sensible about the fact of disability in medical cases.
• A one-stop shop for anyone interested in bioethics, disabilities studies and law, drawing on and synthesizing all three fields • The case study format is easily accessible and engaging, and the book is meticulously researched and documented, making it a valuable resource for research • The substance works on many levels, making the book appropriate for both novices and experts in healthcare, bioethics and disability studies
Contents
1. The struggle: disability rights versus bioethics; 2. Clashing perspectives and a call for reconciliation; 3. Infancy; 4. Childhood; 5. The reproductive years; 6. Adulthood; 7. The end of life; 8. Toward a disability-conscious bioethics.
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