Book Description
Three medical ethicists take varied and often opposing stands on the ethical, social, and political issues that arise when religious and medical practices conflict. The interchange focuses on the tensions between the belief systems, institutional practices, and health-related decisions of Christian Scientists and those of a secularized medically oriented, broader society.
About the Author
Peggy DesAutels is assistant professor of philosophy and associate director of the Ethics Center at the University of South Florida. Margaret P. Battin is professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah and the author of numerous books, including "Ethics in the Sanctuary: Examining the Practicesof Organized Religion" (Yale) and "The Least Worst Death: Essays in Bioethics on the End of Life" (Rowman & Littlefield). Larry May is professor of philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and has authored numerous books, including "The Socially Responsive Self" (Chicago). He is also the co-editor of "Rethinking Masculinity" (Rowman & Littlefield).
Praying for a Cure: When Medical and Religious Practices Conflict FROM THE PUBLISHER
When the children of Christian Scientists die from a treatable illness, are their parents guilty of murder for withholding that treatment? How should the rights of children, the authority of the medical community, and religious freedom be balanced? Is it possible for those adhering to a medical model of health and disease and for those adhering to the Christian Science model to enter into a meaningful dialogue, or are the two models incommensurable? DesAutels, Battin, and May engage in a lucid and candid debate of the issues of who is ultimately responsible for deciding these questions and how to accommodate (and, in some cases, constrain) Christian Science views and practices within a pluralistic society.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Approaches the ethical debate over conflicting religious and medical practices by examining the specific case of health-related choices made by and for Christian Scientists. Discusses recent trends such as increased support of patient's rights to make their own health-and death-related choices, as well as increasing awareness of alternative treatments, including religious ones, and how these conflict with the concurrent recent trend of increasing legal protectionism of vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and the disabled, from the religion-based health choices of their guardians. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)
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