Ethics & Medicine

EDITORIAL Ethics or Metaphysics? David C. Carmer, MD

GUEST COMMENTARY Reading Brain Scans for Intention Identification:
A Tale of Two Anthropologies Sister Renee Mirkes, OSF, PhD

GREY MATTERS From Biochemical Synapse to Bioethical Syntax William P. Cheshire, Jr., MD

CLINICAL ETHICS DILEMMAS Is It Permissible to Forgo Life-Saving Dialysis? Robert Cranton, MD, MA

Ethics in the Emergency Department Fatimah Lateef, MBBS, FRCS (A&E) (EDin), FAMS (EmMed)

Dispensing with Conscience: A History of Difference Jerome Wernow, PhD

The Necessity of Spiritual Care Towards the End of Life Syed Qamar Abbas, MD, PGD (Medical Ethics) and Sibtain Panjwani, BDS, MA, PhD

Book Reviews A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God and Medicine Ian Dowbiggin. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefeld Publishers, Inc., 2007. ISBN 978-0742531116; 176 PAGES, PAPER $19.95 Reviewed by Stephen N. Williams, PhD, who has lectured and written on issues in medical ethics, including euthanasia, as Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological College, Belfast, NORTHERN IRELAND

Biotechnology and the Human Good C. Ben Mitchell, Edmund D. Pellegrino, Jean Bethke Elshtain, John F. Kilner, and Scott B. Rae. Washington, D. C.: Gerogetown University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1589011380, 210 PAGES, PAPER $24.95 Reviewed by Sharon F. Billon, MD, FAAD who is in the private practice of dermatology in Arroyo Grande, California, USA

Commitment and Responsibility in Nursing: A Faith-Based Approach Bart Cusveller, Agnes Sutton, Donal O¬¼Mathuna, Editors. Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0932914514; 184 PAGES, PAPER $16.00 Reviewed by Jack T. Hanford, MDiv, MA, ThD who is a professor of Biomedical Ethics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI, USA

Ethics Consultation: From Theory to Practice Mark P. Alusio, Robert M. Arnold, Stuart J. Youngner, eds. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0801871658; 241 PAGES, CLOTH, $45. Reviewed by R. Henry Williams, MD, MA (Bioethics), FACP, who is in the private practice of internal medicine and serves on the ethics committee at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, TN, USA

Into the Jaws of Yama, Lord of Death: Buddhism, Bioethics, and Death Karma Lekshe Tsomo. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0791468326; 270 PAGES, CLOTH $83.50, PAPER $27.95 Reviewed by Harold Netland, PhD, who is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Intercultural Studies and the Naomi A. Fausch Chair of Missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, USA

Genetic Ties and the Family: the Impact of Paternity Testing on Parents and Children Mark A. Rothstein, Thomas H. Murray, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Mary Anderlik Majumber, Editors. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0801881930; 264 PAGES, CLOTH $ 50.00 Reviewed by Susan M. Haack, MD, MA (Bioethics), FACOG who a consultative gynecologist at Hess Memorial Hospital and Mile Bluff Medical Center in Mauston, Wisconsin, USA

Quality of Life and Human Difference David Wasserman, Jerome Bickenbach, and Robert Wachbroit, Editors. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-83201-2; 273 PAGES, HARDCOVER, $70.00 Reviewed by Jeffrey G. Betcher, MD, FRCPC, MA (Bioethics), who practices anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Regina Qu¬¼Appelle Health Region in Regina, Saskatchewan, CANADA.

Transforming Care: A Christian Vision of Nursing Practice Mary M. Doornbos, Ruth E. Groenhout, Kendra G. Hotz. Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, UK: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005. ISBN 0-808-2874-4; 211 PAGES, PAPER $18.00 Reviewed by Jack T. Hanford, MDiv, MA, ThD who is a professor of Biomedical Ethics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, MI, USA.

Epidemiology and Culture James A. Trostle. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0521790505 (cloth), 978-0521793896 (paper), 978-0511110009 (e-book); 228 PAGES, CLOTH $70.00, PAPER $27.99 Reviewed by Sharon A. Falkenheimer, MD (Aerospace Medicine), MPH, MA (Bioethics), who teaches at the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine, is a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association, and is a Fellow at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity