Category: Book Chapters

Dr. Stahl is co-editor and contributor to book on theology of Paul Tillich

Devan Stahl photoCenter Assistant Professor Dr. Devan Stahl and Dr. Adam Pryor (Bethany College) are co-editors of the book The Body and Ultimate Concern: Reflections on an Embodied Theology of Paul Tillich, published in October 2018 by Mercer University Press.

Dr. Stahl also contributed a chapter titled “Tillich and Transhumanism.”

From the Mercer University Press website:

Paul Tillich’s account of “ultimate concern” has been crucial for his theological legacy. It is a concept that has been taken up and adapted by many theologians in an array of subfields. However, Tillich’s own account of ultimate concern and many of the subsequent uses of it have focused on intelligibility: the ways it makes what is ultimate more accessible to us as rational beings. This volume charts a different course by placing Tillich’s theology in conversation with theories of radical embodiment. The essays gathered here use discourses on the particularity and mutability of the body to offer a critical vantage point for constructive engagement with Tillich’s central theological category: ultimate concern. Each essay explores how individuals can be special bearers of ultimate concern by engaging the body’s role in faith, religion, and culture. As Mary Ann Stenger, professor emerita from University of Louisville, observes in her introduction: “From concerns about bodily integrity to considering bodies on the margins of society to discussions of technologically modified bodies, these articles offer us fresh theological insights and call us to ethical thinking and actions in relation to our bodies and the bodies around us. And certainly, today, the body and a person’s right to bodily integrity have become central, critical issues in our culture.” Contributors include: David H. Nikkel, Kayko Driedger Hesslein, Beth Ritter-Conn, Tyler Atkinson, Courtney Wilder, Adam Pryor, and Devan Stahl.

Dr. Stahl is President Elect of the North American Paul Tillich Society.

Ethics in Surgical Research and Publication

Marleen Eijkholt photoCenter Assistant Professor Dr. Marleen Eijkholt co-authored the chapter “Ethics in Surgical Research and Publication” in Ethical Issues in Surgical Care, a fall 2017 publication from the American College of Surgeons Division of Education. Dr. Eijkholt’s co-authors are Lance K. Stell, MA, PhD, FACFE, and Richard B. Reiling, MD, FACS.

Chapter summary: Surgical research is the foundation of evidence-based surgical practice. The question “what makes research ethical?” entails particular challenges for surgical research. For example, uncertainty and controversy exist in areas of research methodology, given the unique circumstances of each surgical intervention. Placebo control groups and randomization practices, too, raise major methodological issues in surgical research. This chapter discusses controversies in surgical research and publication thereof. The chapter follows the submission of a hypothetical research study through the institutional review board, to highlight areas of ethical controversy, and describe such issues too for the publication of such studies.

For more information on Ethical Issues in Surgical Care, please visit the American College of Surgeons website.

Environmental neuroethics: Setting the foundations

Laura Cabrera photoCenter Assistant Professor Dr. Laura Cabrera has a chapter in the new book Neuroethics: Anticipating the Future, edited by Judy Illes and published last month by Oxford University Press. Dr. Cabrera has provided the abstract of her chapter “Environmental neuroethics: Setting the foundations” below.

Abstract: The ways in which humans relate to their environments has been studied from different perspectives, including ethics, sociology, behavioral sciences and genetics. This chapter discusses an emerging approach within neuroethics – environmental neuroethics (EN) – that focuses on ethical and social implications of environmental influences on brain health and mental health. The chapter begins with an overview of different disciplinary approaches to examining the relationship between the environment and human health, followed by discussion of environmental effects on brain and mental health. The next section argues for the importance of generating normative discussion about related issues, particularly because these matters are of global concern with linked social justice implications. This section also lays the foundations for the first generation of environmental neuroethics. The chapter concludes with key questions and challenges ahead for environmental neuroethics.

Chapter from Dr. Fleck published in ‘Cancer Biomarkers: Ethics, Economics and Society’

Leonard Fleck photoA chapter from Center Professor Dr. Leonard Fleck has been published in the book Cancer Biomarkers: Ethics, Economics and Society, published by Megaloceros Press. Dr. Fleck’s chapter is titled “Just Caring: Precision Medicine, Cancer Biomarkers and Ethical Ambiguity.” The book is edited by Anne Blanchard and Roger Strand.

From the Amazon description:

Cancer care is undergoing a shift from a ‘one-size-fits all’ approach to more personalised medicine. One way of personalising cancer treatments is through biomarkers: molecules or biochemical changes found in the patient’s tissues and body fluids. This book reflects upon the promise of cancer biomarkers and asks questions such as: How may the complexity of cancer biology impede the robustness of biomarkers in the clinic? How should one draw the line between the various sub-groups of patients for personalised treatment? How can one evaluate the cost-effectiveness and fairness of personalised cancer treatments? By bringing together authors from the fields of science and technology studies, medical ethics and philosophy, health economics and oncology, the book aims to give a critical yet accessible overview of some of the key social, ethical and economic issues that surround cancer biomarkers. “The book should be required reading for oncologists, medical students, graduate students and especially for those who make policy decisions regarding the use and reimbursement of cancer biomarkers.” – Bruce Zetter, Charles Nowiszewski Professor of Cancer Biology in the Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

New publications from Dr. Fleck

leonard fleck photoThe work of Center Professor Dr. Leonard Fleck appears in the new book Prioritization in Medicine: An International Dialogue, published by Springer. Dr. Fleck’s chapter is titled “Just Caring: Fair Innings and Priority Setting.”

Dr. Fleck also has an article in the current APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Medicine (Volume 15 Number 2) titled “Just Rationing in the ICU: What Benefits Count?” The current issue can be accessed on the American Philosophical Association website, or you can go directly to the PDF.

Recent publications from Center faculty

Below is a list of recent publication from Center for Ethics faculty, including peer-reviewed journal articles, book reviews, and book chapters. Most articles can be accessed online through MSU Libraries. Open access publications are labeled as such.

  • Stahl D. Moral Evaluations of Genetic Technologies: The Need for Catholic Social Doctrine. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly. Autumn 2015;15(3):477-489.

“The Irreversibility of Death”

tomlinson“The Irreversibility of Death: Metaphysical, Physiological, Medical or Ethical?” is a chapter by Tom Tomlinson, PhD, in the new book Potentiality: Metaphysical and Bioethical Dimensions, edited by John P. Lizza.

Dr. Tomlinson poses several questions in this chapter. When removing a terminally ill person from a ventilator, when can they be declared dead for the purposes of removing their vital organs for transplantation? Immediately after their heart stops? Ten minutes later? If we wait too long the organs will be less viable. If we declare them dead quickly, are we sacrificing a live person to save others. In this chapter, Dr. Tomlinson argues that an earlier declaration of death is ethically acceptable.

Related reading: A Brain Dead Little Girl Raises Some Big Questions

Humility Reconsidered

Margin-of-ErrorRead Judith Andre’s chapter Humility Reconsidered, in the classic bioethics text Margin of Error: The Ethics of Mistakes in the Practice of Medicine, Susan B. Rubin and Laurie Zoloth, editors.

Bringing together the most thoughtful and reflective scholars in this field, Margin of Error offers an original, important, and often deeply personal contribution to the literature on mistakes in medicine and ethics consultation.

See more of Andre’s work in the areas of public health, globalization, and virtue ethics on her page at bioethics.msu.edu.

The Good Wife and Philosophy

The-Good-wifeA chapter by Judith Andre, PhD, Professor Emerita in the Center for Ethics, was recently published in the
The Good Wife and Philosophy: Temptations of Saint Alicia.

Andre’s chapter entitled, Legal Ethics! Really?, exams issues of ethics in the legal system through the lens of this popular television series.

See more of Andre’s work in the areas of public health, globalization, and virtue ethics on her page at bioethics.msu.edu.

Rationing Health Care: new volume with chapter by Leonard Fleck

A new volume of contributions to the health care rationing debate has been published recently by Maklu Publishers:

Andre den Exter, Martin Buijsen, eds. Rationing Health Care: Hard Choices and Unavoidable Trade-offs.

Leonard Fleck, Professor in the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences has a chapter in the volume entitled, “Just Caring: In Defense of the Role of Democratic Deliberation in Health Care Rationing and Priority-setting.”

Description from the publisher:

One of the most controversial issues in many health care systems is health care rationing. In essence, rationing refers to the denial of – or delay in – access to scarce goods and services in health care, despite the existence of medical need. Scarcity of financial and medical resources confronts society with painful questions.

  • Who should decide which medicine or new treatment will be covered by social security and on which criteria such decisions must be based?
  • Can age, for example, be justified as a selection criterion?
  • Should decision-making be left to health care policymakers, hospital administrators, or rather, to treating physicians (‘bedside rationing’)?
  • Is there a role for individual patients?

These are difficult questions that suggest the need for transparent and democratic decision-making. In reality, however, the rationing debate occurs in a sub rosa world, based on imperfect information, distorted interpretations of effectiveness, and hidden cost concerns.

Available on Amazon.com.