Suffering and the Beneficent Community

Erich H. Loewy is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine at Peoria, and is Associate Professor of Humanities and Associate, Graduate Faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

• Forewordby David C. ThomasmaPrefaceAcknowledgments1. The Nature of Suffering2. Grounding Ethics3. Moral Worth: Kinds and Hierarchies4. Social Contract, Community Structure, and Obligation5. The Nature of Needs6. Limits7. Allocating Resources and Treating Individuals FairlyIndex

"Loewy's theory of suffering is new and unique, as is his theory of the community. He properly locates personal freedom within the embrace of the community and provides the basis for a major critique of autonomy."Currently in medical ethics and philosophy of medicine, Libertarianism is pedaled as the basis of a new kind of health professional ethics, a view opposed by a growing number of ethicists. Loewy articulates an alternate view that provides a powerful basis for caring for one another, the social warrant for medicine and health care." — David C. Thomasma, Ph.D., Loyola University Medical Center, Stritch School of Medicine"It provides a significant alternative to the current understanding of medical ethics and it is comprehensive in focus. The way in which the author connects his claims about suffering to claims about justice is something new. It is a refreshing alternative to a rights based approach to the questions under discussion." — Stephen Lammers, Lafayette College