Practical Autonomy and Bioethics

Download or read book Practical Autonomy and Bioethics written by James Stacey Taylor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume in which an account of personal autonomy is developed that both captures the contours of this concept as it is used in social philosophy and bioethics, and is theoretically grounded in, and a part of, contemporary autonomy theory. James Stacey Taylor’s account is unique as it is explicitly a political one, recognizing that the attribution of autonomy to agents is dependent in part on their relationships with others and not merely upon their own mental states. The volume is distinctive in its examples, which touch on the ethics of using inducements to encourage persons to participate in medical research, the ethical issues associated with the use of antibiotics, and the ethical basis for both patient confidentiality and informed consent.