Everyday Bioethics: Reflections on Bioethical Choices in Daily Life (Policy, Politics, Health, and Medicine Series)

Everyday Bioethics suggests a new perspective on the relationships between science, ethics and society. It is based upon the distinction and integration of two fields: the frontier bioethics, which examines the new development of biomedicine; and the bioethics of everyday life, which concerns all people around the world. Indeed, moral reflection on birth, human bodies, jobs, the gender and class relations, diseases and the treatment of the sick, death, the interdependence of human beings and other living creatures, has a long history, as long as that of mankind itself. The ideas and values that daily permeate the minds and behaviors of all human beings in these fields deserve the greatest attention, and are increasingly influenced by the progress of science and technology.

History, science, philosophy and politics are connected in this book, in order to explain the development of these ideas and of the incongruities between the possibilities offered by scientific discoveries, power relations and the growing level of inequities in the world. This volume works through the contradictions concerning procreation and birth, population policies, work and health, the evaluation of the human body as a commodity (from slavery to the biomarket), to conclude with an historical and up-to-date analysis of international health perspectives, suggesting why and how "global health" should become one of the main targets of a globalized world. Human liberty, rights and dignity, equity and access to the progresses of science, respect for individuals and promotion of community interests are the keys for an approach to everyday bioethics.

Intended Audience: Persons interested in bioethics, ethics in general, relationships between science and society, health, reproduction, the human body, population and globalization. Teachers and students at universities and for courses in bioethics. The style of the book is intended for both the specialist and non-specialist.