Extending the Boundaries of Care: Medical Ethics and Caring Practices

Description

How is the concept of patient care adapting in response to rapid changes in healthcare delivery and advances in medical technology? How are questions of ethical responsibility and social diversity shaping the definitions of healthcare? In this topical study, scholars in anthropology, nursing theory, law and ethics explore questions involving the changing relationship between patient care and medical ethics. Contributors address issues that challenge the boundaries of patient care, such as: * HIV-related care and research * the impact of new reproductive technologies * preventative healthcare * technological breakthroughs that are changing personal-caring relationships. Chapters range from a consideration of the practicalities of nursing and family healthcare to a debate about 'universal human needs' and patients' rights. This book is a provocative exploration of the ways in which healthcare models are socially constructed. It will be of interest to policy-makers, medical practitioners and administrators, as well as students of sociology, anthropology and social policy.

Tamara Kohn Department of Anthropology,University of Durham Rosemary McKechnie Bath College of Higher Education

'A well written, engaging, and wonderful compilation of work.' Choice 'This book is not for the faint-hearted; readers can expect to be engaging not only with personal experience, but legal and philosophical argument combined with anthropological perspectives - a challenge to mind and practice.' Anthropology in Action 'This book is part of the excellent series on 'Cross-cultural perspectives on women' ... This volume is a useful contribution to the ongoing debate on the best way to live with each other.' Nursing Ethics 'This is a well-organised, interesting publication for those interested in ethics, care and social research, both singularly and in combination.' Medical Sociology News 'This is a rich and insightful collection of essays that deserves to be widely read across a range of undergraduate and professional courses within the sociology of medicine, medical practice and nursing spheres.' Time & Society 'It was interesting to read a range of anthropologically inspired pieces by sociologists,anthroplogists,and lastly nurses...the volume...certainly does speak well-for care,the caring and the cared'. Social Anthropology 'A refreshing interdisciplinary approach ... engaging and thought-provoking. It is valuable for anyone interested in exploring the greater implications of what it means to care within the medical profession as well as how the term has been and should be defined, studied and applied.' American Ethnologist 'It is engaging, challenging, very thought provoking.' Family Practice 'A persuasive case for the relevance of contextual detail for the cultural study of moral relations.' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute