Bioethics: A Christian Approach in a Pluralistic Age.

• Author: Pozgar, George D.
• Position: Review

Rae, Scott B. & Paul M. Cox. Biethics: A Christian Approach in a Pluralistic Age. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999.

As the foundational volume in the new Critical Issues in Bioethics series, this work addresses the field of bioethics broadly, while subsequent books will focus on particular topics such as end-of-life or genetic issues. Scott Rae and Paul Cox introduce the various approaches to bioethics that are particularly influential today and develop a framework for a Christian approach that can assist people in addressing the many pressing issues in the field.

Part one outlines and assesses the many approaches to bioethics, both religious and secular, that have been formulated over the past twenty-five years. Part two lays out the central theological concepts crucial to an informed Christian perspective on bioethics. Part three suggests some specific ways in which bioethics can be done in our postmodern setting. Throughout the book Rae and Cox use many of today's most hotly debated issues in bioethics to illustrate their discussion.

Valuable to medical practitioners, teachers, students, and general readers, this volume makes a stimulating and substantial contribution to a Christian bioethics that can effectively engage the pluralistic culture in which health care is now practiced.

Scott B. Rae is professor and Paul M. Cox is associate professor of biblical studies and Christian ethics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.

Ameringer, Carl F. State Medical Boards and the Politics of Public Protection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

State medical boards are the public's first line of defense against bad medical care. By licensing and disciplining physicians, the boards help maintain high standards in the medical profession. But how well have the boards succeeded in fulfilling their mission, especially in an era of managed care and its attendant impact on medical accountability?

This book offers the first comprehensive political account of state medical boards. Drawing on board records and files, interviews with prominent physicians, and his own experience as former assistant attorney general in charge of administrative prosecutions, the author reconstructs the political maelstrom surrounding physician discipline before and after the advent of managed care. He shows how the widening scope of conflict in the health-care field and improvements in case management and reporting techniques...