The second edition of Contemporary Health Care Ethics is a welcome addition to the religious bioethics literature. It supplements the original edition with excellent discussions of the standard issues in bioethics from the perspectives of both recent scholarship and theological analysis. The second edition is a most helpful guide through the ever increasing complexities of contemporary bioethics. -- Thomas A. Shannon, professor emeritus, religion and social ethics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute The second edition has been made even better... New chapters on research ethics, organizational ethics, issues in genetics, and global bioethics have been added to make this a more complete text for anyone interested in a Catholic reflection on health care ethics. -- James J. Walter, Austin & Ann O'Malley Chair in Bioethics, The Bioethics Institute, Loyola Marymount University

Contemporary Catholic Health Care Ethics, Second Edition, integrates theology, methodology, and practical application into a detailed and practical examination of the bioethical issues that confront students, scholars, and practitioners. Noted bioethicists Gerard Magill, Henk ten Have, and David F. Kelly contribute diverse backgrounds and experience that inform the richness of new material covered in this second edition. The book is organized into three sections: theology (basic issues underlying Catholic thought), methodology (how Catholic theology approaches moral issues, including birth control), and applications to current issues. New chapters discuss controversial end-of-life issues such as forgoing treatment, killing versus allowing patients to die, ways to handle decisions for incompetent patients, advance directives, and physician-assisted suicide. Unlike anthologies, the coherent text offers a consistent method in order to provide students, scholars, and practitioners with an understanding of ethical dilemmas as well as concrete examples to assist in the difficult decisions they must make on an everyday basis.