Scratching the Surface of Bioethics

Matti Häyry is Head of the Centre for Professional Ethics and Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire. He has taught philosophy and bioethics in various Finnish Universities since 1985, and coordinated research projects in bioethics at the University of Helsinki. He has been a permanent adviser on bioethics to the Finnish National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health since 1991, and has participated in the work of legislative committees at the Finnish Ministries of Justice and Health. His publications include Critical Studies in Philosophical Medical Ethics (1990), Liberal Utilitarianism and Applied Ethics (1994), Playing God: Essays on Bioethics (2001), and many articles on bio-ethics and general philosophy in academic journals and edited collections.Tuija Takala is Docent in Practical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, Finland and Visiting Academic at the University of Manchester. She has taught philosophy at the Universities of Helsinki and Kuopio in Finland. Her research interests include political philosophy and applied ethics, particularly bioethics. Her publications include Genes, Sense, and Sensibility: Philosophical Studies on the Ethics of Modern Biotechnologies (2000), and articles in Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Journal of Medical Ethics, and The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.

• Foreword by Michael ParkerPrefaceIntroduction Matti HÄYRY and Tuija TAKALA: What is Bioethics All About? A StartONE Rebecca BENNETT and Alan CRIBB: The Relevance of Empirical Research to Bioethics: Reviewing the DebateTWO Mairi LEVITT: Better Together? Sociological and Philosophical Perspectives on BioethicsTHREE Tuija TAKALA: The Role of Sense and Sensibility in BioethicsFOUR Eve GARRARD and Stephen WILKINSON: Does Bioethics Need Moral Theory?FIVE Søren HOLM: “Parity of Reasoning” Arguments in Bioethics – Some Methodological ConsiderationsSIX Harry LESSER: Anne Maclean’s Criticism of BioethicsSEVEN Peter HERISSONE-KELLY: The Principlist Approach to Bioethics, and its Stormy Journey OverseasEIGHT Charles A. ERIN: Who Needs “the Four Principles?”NINE Matti HÄYRY: Do Bioscientists Need Professional Ethics?TEN John HARRIS: Pro-Life is Anti-Life: The Problematic Claims of Pro-Life Positions in EthicsELEVEN Simo VEHMAS: The Grounds for Preventing Impairments. A CritiqueTWELVE Mark P. SHEEHAN: Deflating AutonomyTHIRTEEN Paul BARROW: Autonomy: Overworked and Under-Valued About the Editors and ContributorsIndex

"Well written and very readable … can [chapters] can be read either as stand-alone papers or as part of the whole. Despite its title the book does more then ‘scratch the surface’ of bioethics. … while a background knowledge of the main arguments and better known writings in bioethics is definitely a help, the volume may also be useful for those making their first tentative steps in the vast array of academic literature in this field." - in: Bulletin of Medical Ethics, No. 204 (December 2004/January 2005)"The book contains several chapters that echo the practical ethical concerns that health professionals confront in their work. They do more than just ‘scratch the surface of bioethics’ and make the book as a whole a useful addition to the libraries of health professionals" - in: Nursing Ethics 11(3) (2004)"If the discipline of ethics can have its ‘metaethics’, then the discipline of bioethics can have its ‘metabioethics’. This book would be a notable contribution to such a discipline … an excellent collection of essays which are accessibly written, relatively short, and highly thought provoking. Clinicians, caring professionals, philosophers, and students who have some familiarity with the bioethical literature will gain greatly from reading it. If the maturity of a discipline is evidenced by its willingness to reflect on its own assumptions and methods, then this book is a mark of such maturity in bioethics." - in: Metapsychology (Dec. 2003)