Bioethics

This book provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to contemporary bioethics. It also presents provocative, philosophically informed arguments on current bioethical issues. Holland engages with debates ranging from the more familiar – such as euthanasia, advance decisions to refuse treatment, and new reproductive technologies – to the philosophical implications of recent developments in genetics, including prenatal genetic therapy, genetic enhancement and human cloning. The book is built around four crucial themes. The first is moral status: what are the implications of the moral status of human embryos or animals for our biomedical practices? The second theme – life, death and killing – looks at the ethics of ending, or failing to lengthen, human life. Holland then explores various questions of personal identity raised in contemporary bioethical debates. Finally, he presents and develops a version of the argument from nature – which continues to be influential in bioethics – in order to make sense of the objection that some biomedical innovations are �unnatural�. Structuring the discussions in this way creates an engaging introduction to bioethics that is an ideal textbook for students, whilst offering much to stimulate colleagues in the field.

This second edition has been thoroughly and comprehensively updated to reflect the most recent advances in bioethics, and includes an entirely new chapter on the ethical treatment of patients in the minimally conscious state.

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

Part I Moral Status

Introduction to Part I 9

1 Stem Cell Therapy 11

2 Xenotransplantation 29

Part I: Concluding Remarks 48

Part II Life, Death and Killing

Introduction to Part II 53

3 The Value of Life 55

4 What is Death? 68

5 Killing versus Letting Die 85

Part II: Concluding Remarks 103

Part III Personal Identity

Introduction to Part III 107

6 Prenatal Genetic Intervention 111

7 Advance Directives 127

Part III: Concluding Remarks 147

Part IV The Normativity of the 'Natural'

Introduction to Part IV 151

8 Managing Reproduction 159

9 Genetic Enhancement 172

10 Human Cloning 191

Part IV: Concluding Remarks 203

Concluding Remark: Deontic Constraints on Biomedicine 205

References 208

Index 218

"Steven Holland�s Bioethics has become established as the best one volume introduction to philosophical bioethics. I recommend it warmly to students of philosophy and bioethics, but the general reader will also find it enjoyable and accessible. I am delighted to welcome its second edition."
Richard Ashcroft, Queen Mary University of London

"Anyone wishing to get their bearings on the fundamental philosophical questions about moral status, personal identity, life, death, killing, and appeals to nature, that underlie issues in bioethics, should start with Stephen Holland�s book. It is an excellent, balanced work that introduces bioethics in the way that it should be introduced, that is, with some philosophical depth."
John P. Lizza, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Stephen Holland is Reader in the Departments of Philosophy and Health Sciences at the University of York.