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Item Details
| Title:
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AGAINST RELATIVISM
CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND THE SEARCH FOR ETHICAL UNIVERSALS IN MEDICINE |
| By: |
Ruth Macklin |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| List price:
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£49.99 |
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We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for
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| ISBN 10: |
0195116321 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780195116328 |
| Publisher: |
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS INC |
| Pub. date: |
4 March, 1999 |
| Pages: |
304 |
| Description: |
Many intellectuals today embrace a postmodern view of the social construction of ethical values, which reduces to a form of ethical relativism. It is currently fashionable to avoid rights language, reject the central place of individual autonomy, and focus instead on the importance of community, while many people at the interface of ethics, medicine, and the social sciences in the developing world champion autonomy and individual rights in response to past or presentauthoritarian governments and paternalistic practices of physicians. Macklin advances this debate by examining the evidence and arguments on either side, and by presenting her view that ethical universals do exist but that they are compatible with a variety of culturally relativeinterpretations. |
| Synopsis: |
This book provides an analysis of the debate surrounding the facts of cultural diversity, the charge of "ethical imperialism", and the thesis that ethics must be viewed as relative to particular cultures or societies. Macklin examines the role of cultural traditions when used as a defense against critical ethical judgements. She explores key issues in health and medicine seen through the lens of cultural diversity: the physician-patient relationship, disclosing a diagnosis of fatal illness, informed consent, brain death and organ transplantation, rituals surrounding birth and death, female genital mutilation, sex selection of offspring, fertility regulation, and biomedical research involving human subjects. Among the conclusions she reaches are that ethical universals exist, but they should not be confused with ethical absolutes; and that the existence of ethical universals is compatible with a variety of culturally relative interpretations. Some rights related to medicine and healthcare ought to be considered human rights.Illustrative examples are drawn from the author's experience serving on international ethical review committees and her travels to a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where she conducted educational workshops and carried out her own research. |
| Publication: |
US |
| Imprint: |
Oxford University Press Inc |
| Returns: |
Returnable |
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