Living and Dying Well

About this book

In the second volume of his trilogy, Lewis Petrinovich presents a detailed account of the dilemmas that humans in technologically advanced societies face when confronted by matters of life and death, and medical treatment. The issues he discusses include genetic screening, the Human Genome Project, criteria for defining death, organ donation and transplantation, and assisted suicide and euthinasia. Petrinovich also discusses healthcare policy issues such as the allocation of scare medical resources and rationing. He argues for adequate healthcare as a fundamental moral necessity and makes a number of policy recommendations.

Contents

Objectives and background principles; genetic screening; the human genome project; death and its criteria; organ transplants; suicide and euthanasia - moral and legal issues; euthanasia - moral and medical issues; medical ethics and hospital review boards; health-care policy - issues; two proposed health-care plans - Oregon rationing and managed competition; problems in achieving health-care reform; a single-payer National Health plan; moral, medical, and financial issues; the great health-care debate.

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Biography

Lewis Petrinovich is Professor of Psychology Emeritus at theUniversity of California, Riverside. He is the author of HumanEvolution, Reproduction, and Morality and Living and DyingWell (MIT Press, 1998).