Surgical Ethics

"There is not a weak chapter in the book. All are written clearly and cogently, and the editors specified a common format that serves very well to make all the principal ideas in each chapter readily accessible...It both provokes analysis and thought and provides a solid foundation for teaching...Overall, this book accomplishes exactly what the editors intended; it provides a solid foundation for the teaching of ethics to young surgeons...It will be considerable value to any member of the surgical team with interest in these issues."--Medical Humanities Review Advance praise for Surgical Ethics "Surgery involves remarkable degrees of commitment and trust on the part of surgeons, their patients, teams, and trainees. McCullough, Jones, and Brody have assembled here the first universal compendium of the content and enigmas of surgical ethics. This complex web of human relationships is of the utmost importance to the effectiveness, safety, and social acceptability of modern surgical care. The authors Nare to be congratulated on this wonderful book."--Francis D. Moore, M.D., Moseley Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, and Surgeon-in-Chief, Emeritus, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital "This remarkable volume fills a long-vacant niche in the surgical literature. Ethical problems of all kinds that confront the surgeon are discussed with sensitivity and common sense, without resorting to quick fixes or pat answers where there are none. It should be required reading for all surgical teachers and residents in training."--Thomas B. Ferguson, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine and Editor,Annals of Thoracic Surgery "The editors have asked teams of surgeons and ethicists to describe here their detailed considerations of ethical problems and resolutions as references and intellectual stimulants for the surgical profession. I am pleased that they have been able to do so comprehensively, authoritatively, and interestingly. There is little question in my mind that all surgeons will benefit from reading Surgical Ethics, and that it will help all of us as we face the emerging problems of surgical practice in the twenty-first century."--Paul A. Ebert, M.D., Director, American College of Surgeons (from the Foreword) "This is the first textbook devoted exclusively to ethical issues in surgery, and it provides a pragmatic clinical guide to this subject for all members of the surgical health care team. The three editors, including one surgeon, are authorities on medical ethics. Each of the 19 chapters is co-authored by a clinician and a bioethicist. The contributors are 40 distinguished faculty members from medical schools throughout the United States... This excellent, much-needed book serves as a review and a convenient single-source reference to most contemporary ethical issues in surgery. The book would be a valuable addition to the personal libraries of the surgical healthcare team as well as medical school and hospital libraries."--Doody's Health Sciences Book Review "This excellent, much-needed book serves as a review and a convenient single-source reference to most contemporary ethical issues in surgery. The book would be a valuable addition to the personal libraries of the surgical healthcare team as well as medical school and hospital libraries."--Doody's Journal "...this book belongs in every medical library where surgical training programs exist, as well as in the library of every practicing surgeon--not only as a constant reminder of essential principles but as a well-thumbed and frequently read tome....It adds a much-needed touch of soul to the body of surgical literature."--Archives of Surgery "Surgical Ethics fills a gap in the ethics literature and fills it well....The editors...have effectively used a team approach in which a surgeon and an ethicist collaborate on each of the 19 chapters devoted to major issues in surgical ethics.... Who should read this book? I hope that every practicing surgeon would.... Information about the ethical practice of surgery is nowhere else gathered so succinctly ."--Joseph B. Vander Veer, Jr, MD, The Journal of the American Medical Association "Edited and written by teams of well-known surgeons and ethicists, this book achieves an uncommon balance between clinical concerns and philosophical principles."--Religious Studies Review Noted in Annals of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada "This book takes a fresh look at ethical issues from the surgeon's point of view. It merits the attention of anyone with an interest in the ethical problems surgeons face every day."--The New England Journal of Medicine "The editors have succeeded admirably in producing a wide-ranging and insightful examination of the relatively underexplored area of surgical ethics. In addition to its uses as a clinical reference and as a teaching tool, Surgical Ethics will be an important "state of the art" guide for those with research interests in this emerging field. This volume puts surgical ethics onto the bioethics map." -- John C. Moskop, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 3: 2000