Suffering and Bioethics

Ronald M. Green is Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College and a member of the department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. From 1992 to 2011 he directed Dartmouth's Ethics Institute. In 1994 he served on the National Institute's of Health's Human Embryo Research Panel and in 1996-97 he served as founding director of the Institute's Office of Genome Ethics. The author of nine books and editor of three, he has published over one hundred and sixty articles on philosophical and applied ethics. His 2007 book Babies by Design (Yale) has topped the Amazon.com listing of books on genetic engineering. In 2005, Professor Green was named a Guggenheim Fellow. Nathan J. Palpant is Acting Instructor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington, Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. His scientific research focuses on developmental fate choices and therapeutic applications of lateral plate mesoderm derivatives. Dr. Palpant's work in bioethics has focused on the translational implications of nuclease-mediated genetic engineering and human embryonic stem cells. He is co-editor of Human Dignity and Bioethics: from Worldviews to the Public Square (Routledge, Annals of Bioethics, 2013).

• Foreword - Daniel Callahan ; Suffering and Bioethics: an introduction to the volume - Ronald M. Green and Nathan J. Palpant ; Part 1: The Nature, Meaning, and Experience of Suffering ; 1. Suffering and Human Dignity - Eric Cassell ; 2. Understanding Suffering - Barry Hoffmaster, ; 3. Paying Homage to the Silence of Suffering - Susan and Gordon Marino ; 4. Suffering, and the Promise of a World without Pain - Joseph Amato ; Part 2: Suffering in Biology ; 5. Social Neuroscience Meets Philosophy: Suffering, Empathy, and Moral Cognition -Jean Decety ; 6. The Biology of Suffering - Daniel Krashin, Natalia Murinova, Catherine Q. Howe, and Jane Ballantyne ; 7. What is Suffering and What Sorts of Beings Can Suffer? - David Degrazia ; Part 3: Suffering in Policy and Law ; 8. Individual and Social Callousness Toward Human Suffering - Daniel B. Hinshaw, Peter D. Jacobson, and Marisa P. Weisel ; 9. Human Rights and the Moral Obligation to Alleviate Suffering - Roberto Andorno and Cristiana Baffone ; 10. Exploring Interactions Between Suffering and the Law - Margaret Somerville ; Part 4: Worldview Perspectives on Suffering and Medicine ; 11. Suffering: A Catholic Theological-Ethical View -Lisa Cahill ; 12. The Orthodox Christian View of Suffering - H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. ; 13. Redemptive Suffering Redeemed: A Protestant View of Suffering - Karen Lebacqz ; 14. Suffering: Reflections from the Jewish Tradition - Laurie Zoloth ; 15. Human Suffering through Illness in the Context of Islamic Bioethics - Abdulaziz Sachedina ; 16. Endure, Adapt, or Overcome? The Concept of 'Suffering' in Buddhist Bioethics - Jens Schlieter ; 17. Human Suffering and the Limits of Secular Bioethics - Mark Cherry ; Part 5: Suffering in the Ethics of Contemporary Medicine and Biotechnology ; 18. Reproductive Technology in Suffering's Shadow - Paul Lauritzen ; 19. Genomic Information and Suffering in the Genomic Era - Roberta Berry ; 20. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis and the Prevention of Suffering - Mary Anderlik Majumder ; Part 6: Concluding Thoughts ; 21. Suffering and Ethics in an Age of Empowerment - Nathan J. Palpant ; 22. The Evil of Suffering - Ronald M. Green

The book is edited by a pathologist and a professor of religion. Their distinct professions inform the book, giving it a multidisciplinary feel that is necessary for addressing such a holistic subject. Although the essays are from scholars in a range of fields, they are generally jargon free. The result is a book accessible to bioethicists, theologians, medical professionals, and educated lay readers.