The philosophy of medicine framing the field

The term `bioethics' was coined in 1971, just as interest in the medical humanities claimed a prominent place in medical education. Out of this interest, a substantial area of research and scholarship took shape: the philosophy of medicine. This field has been directed to the epistemological, ontological, and value-theoretical issues occasioned by medicine and the biomedical sciences. Bioethics is nested in this field and can only be fully understood in terms of the foundational issues it addresses. This collection of essays in honor of Stuart F. Spicker, one of the individuals who gave shape to the philosophy of medicine, lays out the broad scope of concerns from the philosophy of embodiment, to issues of the role of ethics consultants, to concepts of disease, equity and the meaning of history.

The Philosophy of Medicine and Bioethics: An Introduction to the Framing of a Field, H.T. Engelhardt Jr. Section One: The Philosophy of the Body and Bioethics. Bodies of Knowledge, Philosophical Anthropology, and Philosophy of Medicine, H.A.M.J. ten Have. Bodies, Body Parts, and Body Language: Reflections on Ontology and Personal Identity in Medical Practice, M.W. Wartofsky. Bodies and Minds in the Philosophy of Medicine: Organ Sales and the Lived Body, M.J. Cherry. Section Two: Euthanasia, Secular Priests, and the Centrality of Choice. Accommodating Death: Euthanasia in the Netherlands, T. Halper. Why Should Anyone Listen to Ethics Consultants? G.J. Agich. Changing Views of Paternalism in Research: AIDS Activists Demand Change, L.M. Kopelman. Section Three: Fundamental Categories: The Mind, Equity, The State, and Time. Three Designations of Disorder: Diversity, Disease, and Determination in Psychiatric Thought and Practice, K.W.M. Fulford. Equity and the Health Effects of Urbanization, B.M. Dickens. Against Engelhardt on Kant's Moral Foundations and Hegel's Category of the State, T.J. Bole III. Bole on Kant, Hegel, and Engelhardt: A Brief Reply, H.T. Engelhardt, Jr. Epilogue: The Use of the Past, A. Sakai. Bibliography of the Works of Stuart Francis Spicker. Notes on Contributors. Index.