Stephen G. Post – Encyclopedia of Bioethics (Third edition, 5 Volume set)

Описание

At the time of the first publication of the Encyclopedia of
Bioethics in 1978, the then fledgling field of bioethics was
neither well defined nor widely recognized. Warren Thomas
Reich, then Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute
of Ethics at Georgetown University, envisioned a major
reference work that would contribute significantly to the
establishment of bioethics as a field by integrating historical
background, current issues, future implications, ethical theory,
and comparative cultural and religious perspectives. Professor
Reich became the editor in chief for the first edition, a fourvolume
set that, as he foresaw, was immediately acknowledged
as a landmark reference work defining the field.
The 1978 edition received the American Library
Association’s 1979 Dartmouth Medal for outstanding
reference work of the year, as well as widespread critical
acclaim. The eminent bioethicist Daniel Callahan, writing
for Psychology Today in March of 1979, entitled his stellar
review of the Encyclopedia “From Abortion to Rejuvenation:
A Summa of Medical Ethics.” Choice declared the work “an
outstanding achievement.” Social Science described the work
as “magnificent,” and the Hastings Center Report acknowledged
it as both “an astonishing achievement” and “a major event.”
Throughout the 1980s, as programs in bioethics and medical
humanities proliferated in professional schools, undergraduate
and graduate school curricula, “think tanks,” and academic
societies, the first edition of the Encyclopedia was considered
the essential reference work in the field, and contributed
significantly to intellectual vitality.
While the 1978 first edition will always be essential and
fascinating reading for anyone interested in the history of
bioethics, it was, by the late 1980s, in need of a revision. A
reference work at the interface of biology, technology,
healthcare and ethics becomes dated due to the fast pace of
biotechnological development, changes in the healthcare
delivery system, and the emergence of important new voices
in a rapidly expanding field. Although in certain respects the
modern bioethics movement began in the United States, it
took root in many countries around the world during the
1980s, requiring the inclusion of scholarship from other
nations and cultures in order to properly reflect worldwide
growth. Professor Reich impressed all those working on the
second edition with his remarkable grasp of the history of
medical ethics, of the modern bioethics movement, of
European thinkers, of religious ethics and moral philosophy,
and of salient clinical issues.
The revised edition included various topic areas including:
professional–patient relationship; public health; ethical theory;
religious ethics; bioethics and the social sciences; healthcare;
fertility and human reproduction; biomedical and behavioral
research; history of medical ethics; mental health and
behavioral issues; sexuality and gender; death and dying;
genetics; population; organ and tissue transplantation and
artificial organs; welfare and treatment of animals;
environment; and codes, oaths, and other directives. All of
these topics are retained and enhanced in the third edition.
The five-volume revised edition, which was carefully
planned at editorial meetings in the spring and fall of 1990,
was supported by both the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the National Science Foundation, in addition
to several private foundations and individual donors. The
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation was a major funder of
both the first and the revised editions. Published in 1995 by
Macmillan Reference Division, it received the same high
level of acclaim as the first edition.
Development of a Third Edition
Yet with the passing of the 1990s, the Encyclopedia again
required a thorough revision and update. Warren Reich,
professor emeritus at Georgetown and deeply engaged with a
new project on the history of “care,” decided not to prepare
the third edition. He recommended Stephen Garrard Post—
who had served as his associate editor in the preparation of
the second edition—for the position of editor in chief of the
third edition. Subsequently, Macmillan Reference, after
consulting with Georgetown University (which had sponsored
the first edition), offered the position of editor in
chief to Post.
This invitation was accepted with the understanding
that a third edition could only emerge from the already
remarkable scope and framework of the revised edition, and
would be much indebted to all those responsible for that
extraordinary work, including the following area editors:
Dan E. Beauchamp, Arthur L. Caplan, Christine K. Cassel,
James F. Childress, Allen R. Dyer, John C. Fletcher, Stanley
M. Hauerwas, Albert R. Jonsen, Patricia A. King, Loretta M.
Kopelman, Ruth B. Purtillo, Holmes Rolston III, Robert M.
Veatch, and Donald P. Warwick.
There are more than 110 new article titles in the third
edition, and approximately the same number of new articles
appearing under old titles. Thus, half of the third edition is
entirely new, while half consists of deeply revised and
updated articles from the earlier edition. There isn’t a single
article that was not thoroughly updated, even if only at the
level of bibliographies. The least revision was needed in the
topic areas of environmental ethics, population ethics, and
the history of medical ethics. For all necessary revisions, we
went back to the articles’ original authors, whenever possible,
and many accepted to undertake the revision work. In
those cases where the original authors were not available,
new authors were asked to complete the work. Both original
and new authors are acknowledged and their contributions
clearly identified in the bylines. A small but exceptional set
of articles from the revised edition were designated by the
editorial board as classics, and are retained in the third
edition unchanged. These articles were selected because they
were written by a distinguished contributor to the field and
were still deemed definitive. For example, Daniel Callahan’s
article on “Bioethics” was retained as a classic, as was Reich’s
“Care: I: History of the Notion.” Also included without
revision are those articles under the title “Medical Ethics,
History of,” which do not pertain to the contemporary
period. But all articles dealing with the contemporary period
were significantly revised in order to be current with the
many developments in bioethics over the past decade in
countries and regions across the world.
EDITORIAL BOARD. The development of this third edition
of the Encyclopedia was facilitated by a new editorial board
consisting of area editors David Barnard, Dena S. Davis,
Eric T. Juengst, Loretta M. Kopelman, Maxwell J. Mehlman,
Kenneth F. Schaffner, Bonnie Steinbock, Leonard J. Weber,
and Stuart J. Youngner. These editors were selected because
their particular expertise—as philosophers, ethicists, healthcare
professionals, and teachers—was needed to revise and expand
those topic areas from the revised edition where new
developments had been particularly rapid over the 1990s.
The Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board were responsible
for the intellectual planning of the third edition, including
all decisions about contents and authorship, as well as for
reviewing and approving all manuscripts. Mark Aulisio
served as associate editor for ethical theory and clinical ethics.
CONSULTANTS. William Deal, Patricia Marshall, Carol C.
Donley, Sana Loue, Robert H. Binstock, and Barbara J.
Daly made significant contributions to the quality of the
overall work as editorial consultants. Carrie Zoubol assisted
with bibliographical updating.
The Appendix, found in volume five of the Encyclopedia,
consists largely of an exhaustive collection of historical
and contemporary codes and oaths across all the healthcare
professions, as well as research ethics guidelines and regulations.
The remarkable collection of primary documents in
the revised edition was thoroughly updated by Kayhan Parsi
of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy
at the Stritch School of Medicine of Loyola University. This
was a major task because there have been so many revisions
of contemporary documents since the early 1990s, as well as
the introduction of many new policy and ethical statements
from a wide array of professional organizations. Carol C.
Donley contributed an annotated bibliography on literature
and medicine from the Center for Literature, Medicine, and
the Healthcare Professions at Hiram College. Emily Peterson
added an annotated bibliography on law and medicine.
Doris M. Goldstein, Director of Library and Information
Services at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown
University, thoroughly updated the section on “Additional
Resources in Bioethics,” which she had prepared for the
revised edition. Volume five is the fruit of much labor and
will be a definitive resource for the field over the next decade.