Listening to Scientists—and Each Other

During the past two years, colleagues and I at The Hastings Center have worked on a project, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, that seeks to improve the quality of public deliberation, particularly about science. Specifically, we seek to improve the public's capacity for civic learning, which is our term for the ability of people living in a democracy to learn at least the basics of complex policy issues, discuss them, and make civically responsible decisions about them. There are no quick fixes. The forces that have undermined trust in society and that inhibit a mutually respectful deliberation about these issues have built up over centuries.     

Challenging Medical Authority The Refusal of Treatment by Christian Scientists

Christian Scientists' refusal of medical care for their children illustrates the kind of conflict over moral and practical authority that can arise between groups in a pluralistic society. While consensus may not be possible, changes in the way both groups socialize members may allow the medical and Christian Science communities to achieve a compromise that is respectful to both.     

Bioethics in the Language of the Law

Law provides a rich language for thinking about bioethical issues and is a tool for action as well as talk. But the language of the law, often inapt, regularly fails to achieve its desired effect.     

Bartleby in the NICU

The doctors were frustrated. They could see only two options. Neither was very desirable. They could stop the ventilator and let the baby die. Or they could do a tracheostomy and start preparations to discharge him on a ventilator. The parents wanted a third option. They kept hoping that their baby would get better. The doctors were pretty sure that that wasn't going to happen.     

Bioethics in the law

The role of law in bioethics is clear. Laws are enforcement tools: they govern which conditions qualify an individual for disability benefits, or what oversight is necessary for clinical trial protocols, or how patent applications for medical devices should be regulated. I initially studied the law in order to enhance my work in bioethics, but in examining how the law works, I have become convinced that the converse opportunity also exists: there are many areas of law that would benefit from greater input from those in the bioethics community.     

Meeting in the Middle

Book reviewed in this article: Splitting the Difference . By Martin Benjamin. Compromise and Political Action . By J. Patrick Dobel     

Voices in the Wilderness

Book reviewed in this article: Theological Voices in Medical Ethics . Edited by Allen Verhey and Stephen E. Lammers     

Triage in the ICU

Some patients in intensive care units are too sick to derive much benefit from being there, while others are too well to require the technology and skills offered. When ICU resources are scarce, they may ethically be withdrawn from either sort of patient in favor of one more likely to benefit from the care.