Review by Choice Review
If exposed to American television advertising in 2008, a being from another planet might well think the primary health care issues for Americans--perhaps for the species in general--are erectile dysfunction and an overactive bladder. Sassower and Cutter (both, Univ. of Colorado, Colorado Springs) argue for an integrative approach to bioethics (and to the disciplines studied and served by bioethics) that situates bioethical reflection in the cultural context, shaping and giving meaning to the issues capturing popular attention in contemporary biomedicine. Just as the domination of broadcast advertising by a few of the medical (or medicalized) concerns of aging baby boomer males distorts the social reality of health and health care in the US, so the failure to take into account both the basic historical roots of the art and science of medicine, and the epistemology underlying medicine itself, distorts the conceptual adequacy and the usefulness of traditional bioethics. This book seeks to replace or augment this tradition and its emphasis on the language of autonomy and rights with the more comprehensive, integrative approach the authors develop. It offers a useful critique of several important, contested issues, especially that of the question of medical certainty. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. J. H. Barker Converse College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
