Public Health Ethics : Key Concepts and Issues in Policy and Practice /

Public health ethics is a branch of bioethics focusing on ethical questions that emerge when addressing the health of populations, as opposed to those that arise when examining individual relationships between a patient and a provider. While the discipline of bioethics has already addressed these issues, it is more recent that they are explored under the name of "public health ethics." This work may therefore be considered an introduction to a new field. Dawson is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele University (UK) and coeditor of the journal Public Health Ethics. The contributors are international leaders in bioethics and public or population health. The topics addressed in the first part of the book are more philosophical, and include the nature of the concept of health, disease, prevention, risk, precaution, and an account of health inequality and justice. The second section focuses on specific issues such as screening, vaccination and disease control, smoking, and the environment. The book may serve as an introduction to the field; however, chapters stand as critical contributions to the topics addressed. Therefore, it will be of interest to both new students as well as professional bioethicists. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic, professional, and general readers, all levels. M. M. Gillis Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University