Medical Ethics at the Dawn of the 21st Century.

• Position: Review

Cohen-Almagor, Raphael, ed. Medical Ethics at the Dawn of the 21st Century. New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 2000; .

This volume of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences contains essays that were presented at an international conference convened at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute in January 1998. With the support of the Israeli Ministry of Science, seventeen leading scholars from Israel, the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands participated. The book includes essays that revolve around three main themes: the appropriate roles for doctors, decisions at the beginning and end of life, and medical ethics in the age of biotechnology. The essays are written from different perspectives, employing different methodologies that enrich the discussion and exhibit a multitude of views. The scholars examine practical questions from theoretical and analytical perspectives, combining theory, law, and scientific knowledge.

Liberals utilize terms of principle in discourse: e.g., liberty, tolerance, rights, equality, autonomy, truth, and justice (John Rawls). They wish to promote liberty, tolerance and individual autonomy, to seek ways to accommodate different conceptions of the good, and to reach compromises by which the system will respect variety and...