AUTHOR: Mark Wesley Foreman & Lindsay C. Leonard
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2022, (384 pages).
- Life and Death Issues
- Clinical or health-care issues
- Medical Research
- Social Health-care policy
Readers get an overview of three major ethical theories such as consequentialism (good ends justify the means), deontology (doing the right thing), and virtue ethics (both ends and means must be good).
They appraise the three theories by introducing the need for a Christian perspective as well as legal matters. For the former, he asks questions like "How does the act honour God?" For the latter, it is about applying bioethics with regard to difficult decisions between what is legal and what is ethical. These two do not necessarily meet. What is legal might not be ethical, and what is ethical might not be legal. Certainly, the most "Christian" of all the theories is "virtue ethics" and the least is "consequentialist." The reality is, that things are sometimes more complicated than mere definitions. Thus, the authors while proposing their framework, acknowledge that ethical reflection requires much more than mere theory. Even something as basic as asking whether an action harms or helps could become ambiguous when placed along a time continuum. For instance, what is helpful now might be harmful later; or what hurts now might help eventually. Other issues include the principles of equality; need; effort; contribution; merit; free-market exchange; etc.
The chapter on the "Principles of Bioethics" is an important one to slowly digest. A clear understanding will help shed light when it comes to conflicts and controversies. More importantly, from a Christian perspective, readers get to anchor themselves back on the key theological foundations such as God's purpose in creation; human dignity; community responsibility; freedom & limitation; etc. Even though the details have been left out, the overview sufficiently maps out the scope of the interaction between Christianity and modern medicine. The authors make a distinction between moral (ethical) arguments and legal ones. On abortion, readers will not only learn about the arguments from the pro-life and pro-choice positions, but they also get to explore the meaning of Personhood, to help one make sense of the two. On Infanticide, we learn of the tough decision of "caring but not killing" even when it hurts so bad. The chapter on Euthanasia treats the meaning, purpose, and quality of life views and to ask ourselves the ethics of ending or extending one's life. Physician-Assisted suicide is a more recent issue. As this becomes legalized in more places, we re-examine life from the lens of natural vs obligatory. Other issues include procreation and genetic ethics, all of which are becoming more complex each day.
My Thoughts
Firstly, this book packs a lot of good stuff to highlight the challenges of modern medicine. This world is becoming more complex. Anyone who says this would agree, albeit to varying extents. In the past, many simply adopted tradition without much pushback. This was partly due to the lower literacy level at that time. As more people get trained at the tertiary level, especially in the sciences, past practices are not that easily accepted. Today, traditional practices are critically examined, questioned, and sometimes rejected in favour of new findings in the name of progress and new thought. This has major implications for ethical practices. This book covers bioethics and medical ethical considerations from a Christian perspective. They discuss issues that might seem theoretical or theological at first but manage to translate them into personal implications as well.
Secondly, read this book without jumping to conclusions. Some readers might be quick to point out the conservative positions taken by the authors, like the pro-life position or the life-is-sacred position. I caution anyone about jumping to these conclusions. For me, understanding the reasons for making such positions is more important than the conclusions themselves. The authors actively pursue the pros and cons of the various issues without taking any of them lightly. With the Bible as the main guide, we sometimes see such decision-making as choices between God's Word and man's choice. Knowing the why is a lot more helpful than reading about the final positions. More often than not, there are no definite final positions, only decisions made with inner pain and struggles. About matters pertaining to life and death, saying yes or no to any decision by itself is already a huge challenge. If we understand the reasons for any decisions, we will learn to empathize with the decision-makers, whichever camp they come from.
Finally, there are more issues that have not been covered in this book. Issues like the recent Covid-19 pandemic, or SARS, and the political-social-theological-legal-moral perspectives surrounding these. I was hoping to read about the perspectives of vaccines, on the ethical and legal implications of government restrictions and mandatory requirements on society. Hopefully, the authors could add that sometime in the future.
I enjoy this book and warmly recommend this to anyone interested in the field of medical ethics and Christian perspectives on them.
Mark Wesley Foreman (PhD, University
of Virginia) has been teaching bioethics at Liberty University for
almost thirty years. He has a doctorate in which he concentrated on
bioethics, studying under James F. Childress, who is recognized as one
of the fathers of the modern bioethics movement in this country.
Lindsay C. Leonard serves as Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia and is adjunct instructor for the online bioethics course for Liberty University. She is trained in bioethics and legislation on these issues.
Rating: 4.75
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Kregel Academic without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
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