Against Bioethics (Basic Bioethics)



Against Bioethics (Basic Bioethics)

Governments, health professionals, patients, research institutions, and research subjects look to bioethicists for guidance in making important decisions about medical treatment and research. And yet, argues Jonathan Baron in Against Bioethics, applied bioethics lacks the authority of a coherent guiding theory and is based largely on intuitive judgments. Baron proposes an alternative, arguing that bioethics could have a coherent theory based on utilitarianism and decision analysis. Utilitarianism holds that the best option is the one that does the most expected good. Decision analysis provides a way of thinking about the risks and trade-offs of specific options. Like economics, utilitarian decision analysis makes predictions of expected good in complex situations, using data when possible, and focusing human judgment on the issues relevant to consequences. With such a guiding theory, bioethics would never yield decisions that clearly go against the expected good of those involved, as some do now. Baron discusses issues in bioethics that can be illuminated by such analysis, including "enhancements" to nature in the form of genetics, drugs, and mind control; reproduction; death and end-of-life issues, including advance directives, euthanasia, and organ donation; coercion and consent; conflict of interest and the reform of internal review boards; and drug research. Although Baron opposes current practice in bioethics, he argues that by combining utilitarianism and decision analysis, bioethics can achieve its aims of providing authoritative guidance in resolving thorny medical and ethical issues.













Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm - A Medical Dictionary, Bibliography, and Annotated Research Guide to Internet References



Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm - A Medical Dictionary, Bibliography, and Annotated Research Guide to Internet References

This is a 3-in-1 reference book. It gives a complete medical dictionary covering hundreds of terms and expressions relating to abdominal aortic aneurysm. It also gives extensive lists of bibliographic citations. Finally, it provides information to users on how to update their knowledge using various Internet resources. The book is designed for physicians, medical students preparing for Board examinations, medical researchers, and patients who want to become familiar with research dedicated to abdominal aortic aneurysm. If your time is valuable, this book is for you. First, you will not waste time searching the Internet while missing a lot of relevant information. Second, the book also saves you time indexing and defining entries. Finally, you will not waste time and money printing hundreds of web pages.














Confucian Bioethics (Philosophy and Medicine / Asian Studies in Bioethics and the Philosophy of Medicine)



Confucian Bioethics (Philosophy and Medicine / Asian Studies in Bioethics and the Philosophy of Medicine)

This volume explores Confucian views regarding the human body, health, virtue, suffering, suicide, euthanasia, `human drugs,' human experimentation, and justice in health care distribution. These views are rooted in Confucian metaphysical, cosmological, and moral convictions, which stand in contrast to modern Western liberal perspectives in a number of important ways. In the contemporary world, a wide variety of different moral traditions flourish; there is real moral diversity. Given this circumstance, difficult and even painful ethical conflicts often occur between the East and the West with regard to the issues of life, birth, reproduction, and death. The essays in this volume analyze the ways in which Confucian bioethics can clarify important moral concepts, provide arguments, and offer ethical guidance. The volume should be of interest to both general readers coming afresh to the study of bioethics, ethics, and Confucianism, as well as for philosophers, ethicists, and other scholars already familiar with the subject.













Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists (Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering)



Radiation Physics for Medical Physicists (Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering)

This book summarizes the radiation physics knowledge that professionals working in medical physics need to master for efficient and safe dealings with ionizing radiation. It contains eight chapters, each chapter covering a specific group of subjects related to radiation physics and is intended as a textbook for a course in radiation physics in medical-physics graduate programs. However, the book may also be of interest to the large number of professionals, not only medical physicists, who in their daily occupations deal with various aspects of medical physics and find a need to improve their understanding of radiation physics. The main target audience for this book is graduate students studying for M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in medical physics, who haveto possess the necessary physics and mathematics background knowledge to be able to follow and master the complete textbook. Medical residents, technology students and biomedical engineering students may find certain sections too challenging or esoteric, yet they will find many sections interesting and useful in their studies. Candidates preparing for professional certification exams in any of the medical physics subspecialties should find the material useful, and some of the material would also help candidates preparing for certification examinations in medical dosimetry or radiation-related medical specialties. Numerous textbooks are available covering the various subspecialties of medical physics but they generally make a transition from the elementary basic physics directly into the intricacies of the given medical physics subspecialty. The intent of this textbook is to provide the missing link between the elementary physics on the one hand and the physics of the subspecialties on the other hand.













Biomedical Applications of Nanotechnology



Biomedical Applications of Nanotechnology

An overview of nanotechnology and its potential The field of nanotechnology is undergoing rapid developments on many fronts. This reference provides a comprehensive review of various nanotechnologies with a view to their biomedical applications. With chapters contributed by distinguished scientists from diverse disciplines, Biomedical Applications of Nanotechnology : Reviews recent advances in the designing of various nanotechnologies based on nucleic acids, polymers, biomaterials, and metals Discusses biomedical nanotechnology in areas such as drug and gene delivery Covers advanced aspects of imaging and diagnostics Includes a chapter on the issue of nanotoxicology Complete with figures and tables, this is a practical, hands-on reference book for researchers in pharmaceutical and biotech industries, biomedical engineers, pharmaceutical scientists, pharmacologists, and materials scientists as well as for the policymakers who need to understand the potential of nanotechnology. It is also an excellent resource book for graduate-level students in pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical engineering, and other fields in which nanotechnology is playing an increasingly important role.














Sourcebook of Models for Biomedical Research



Sourcebook of Models for Biomedical Research

The collection of systems represented in the Sourcebook of Models for Biomedical Research reflect the diversity and utility of models that are used in biomedicine. That utility is based on the consideration that observations made in particular organisms will provide insight into the workings of other, more complex systems. Some models have the advantage that the reproductive, mitotic, development or aging cycles are rapid compared with those in humans; others are utilized because individual proteins may be studied in an advantageous way and have human homologs. Other organisms are facile to grow in laboratory settings, lend themselves to convenient analyses, have defined genomes or present especially good human models of human or animal disease. The Sourcebook of Models for Biomedical Research is a comprehensive and extensive collection of these important medical parallels. While the entire book is not devoted to the remarkable success of the genomic programs, this work is well represented and indexed within these pages. This volume will be an invaluable resource for pharmaceutical and academic researchers across a wide range of biological fields.














Biomedical Transducers and Instruments



Biomedical Transducers and Instruments

Biomedical transducers are essential instruments for acquiring many types of medical and biological data. From the underlying principles to practical applications, this new book provides an easy- to-understand introduction to the various kinds of biomedical transducers. The first comprehensive treatment of this subject in 20 years, the book presents state-of-the-art information including: discussions of biomedical transducers for measurements of pressure, flow, motion, temperature, heat flow, evaporation, biopotential, biomagnetism, and chemical quantities. Chapters are devoted to particular areas of instrumentation needs