What is wrong with selecting and implanting a deaf embryo? What are 'designer babies' and why can't we choose to have them? Is there a right to know one's genetic origins? Should we allow a market in transplant organs? Are doctors justified in refusing to perform treatments on conscientious grounds? These and many other diverse questions are considered in this collection of essays on cutting-edge topics in medical ethics. Leading philosophers give in-depth accounts of some of the most pressing questions and challenge our most basic assumptions in this area of academic as well as public interest. Provocative and original, the contributions to this volume are bound to change the way we think about medical ethics.

'...essential reading for anyone interested in the vast range of complex ethical, social and legal issues at the center of contemporary medical ethics.' - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Introduction; N.Athanassoulis
Belief, Disability and the Non-Identity Problem; H.Lillehammer
'Designer Babies', Instrumentalisation and the Child's Right to an Open Future; S.Wilkinson
Why There is no Right to Know One's Genetic Origins; H.Draper
Compromise and Moral Complicity in the Embryonic Stem Cell Debate; K.Devolder & J.Harris
Towards a Natural Law Critique of Genetic Engineering; D.S. Oderberg
Autonomy Inducements and Organ Sales; J.S.Taylor
The Role of Conscience in Medical Ethics; P.Benn
The Treatment that Leaves Something to Luck; N.Athanassoulis
Active and Passive Euthanasia; R.Frey
Index

NAFSIKA ATHANASSOULIS is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds, UK, where she teaches moral and practical philosophy. Her research interests include the problem of moral luck, virtue ethics, Aristotle and Kant. She has published in the Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Res Publica and is the author of Morality, Moral Luck and Responsibility (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).