Duty and Healing: Foundations of a Jewish Bioethic

Benjamin Freedman, Charles Weijer

Psychology Press, 1999 - Medical - 344 pages

"Duty and Healing" positions ethical issues commonly encountered in clinical situations within Jewish law. The concept of duty is significant in exploring bioethical issues, and this book presents an authentic and non-parochial Jewish approach to bioethics, while it includes critiques of both current secular and Jewish literatures.
Among the issues the book explores are the role of family in medical decision-making, the question of informed consent as a personal religious duty, and the responsibilities of caretakers. The exploration of contemporary ethical problems in healthcare through the lens of traditional sources in Jewish law is an indispensable guide of moral knowledge.

Contents

• PROLOGUE: 31
• The Model of Rights: 35
• The Model of Expert Counselor: 39
• The Model of Duty: 43
• Some Differences Between the Models: 48
• Morality Within Relationships: 52
• SECTION 1: 67
• Introduction: 69
• The Standard View: 75
• Problems with the Standard View: 81
• Families as Proxies in the Standard View: 89
• A Family Duty: 97
• Respectful Service and Reverent Obedience: 101
• Preventing Pain and Indignity: 117
• The Priority of Duty: 127
• Introduction: 139
• The Duty to Seek Medical Treatment: 142
• The Duty to Heal: 147
• The Doctrine of Informed Consent in Jewish Sources: 152
• The Nature of Medical Choice and Its Implications for Consent: 163
• The Reasonable Caretaker: 175
• SECTION 3: 191
• Introduction: 193
• The Minima: 200
• Competence as Capability and as Authorization: 213
• The Need for Protection: 228
• Competency Consent to Treatment and Other Social Roles: 241
• SECTION 4: 253
• Introduction: 255
• Risking Life to Lengthen Life: 262
• Risking Pain and Life for Quality of Life: 279
• The Threshold of Risk Gd Protects Fools: 300
• Definition and Presentation: 309
• Summarizing Halakhic Principles of Personal Medical Decision Making: 319
• Next Steps in Healing and Duty: 329
• Sources of Jewish Law: 333
• Glossary: 334
• Index: 336

About the author

Benjamin Freedman was a Professor of Medicine and Philosophy in the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University. He wrote extensively on bioethics and was most recently co-editor of Contemporary Health Care Ethics in Canada (1995). He died in 1997. Charles Weijer is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Office for Bioethics Education and Research at Dalhousie University.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Duty and Healing: Foundations of a Jewish Bioethic; Reflective bioethics
• Authors: Benjamin Freedman, Charles Weijer
• Editor: Charles Weijer
• Contributor: Charles Weijer
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 1999
• ISBN: 0415921791, 9780415921794
• Length: 344 pages
• Subjects: Medical / Ethics; Religion / Ethics; Religion / Judaism / Theology