Boekhandel Douwes Den Haag

The Ethics of Uncertainty

Entangled Ethical and Epistemic Risks in Disorders of Consciousness

Johnson, L. Syd M (Associate Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, Associate Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, SUNY Upstate Medical University)

The Ethics of Uncertainty

The Ethics of Uncertainty

Entangled Ethical and Epistemic Risks in Disorders of Consciousness

The Ethics of Uncertainty

 

This is the first book-length, empirically-informed philosophical treatment of disorders of consciousness. The book puts forward a compelling ethical approach focused on uncertainty, epistemic and ethical risk, and justice.


Leverbaar

€ 58,10

Levertijd: 5 tot 10 werkdagen


Beschrijving The Ethics of Uncertainty

Disorders of Consciousness (DoCs) raise difficult and complex questions about the value of life for persons with impaired consciousness, the rights of persons unable to make medical decisions, and our social, medical, and ethical obligations to patients whose personhood has frequently been challenged and neglected. Recent neuroscientific discoveries have led to enhanced understanding of the heterogeneity of these disorders, and focused renewed attention on the medical and ethical problem of misdiagnosis.

This book examines the entanglement of epistemic and ethical uncertainty in DoCs and other medical contexts, and how they interact to create both epistemic and ethical risks. Philosopher and bioethicist L. Syd M Johnson pulls together multiple threads in this work: the ontological mysteries of consciousness, medical uncertainty about unconsciousness, ableist bias, withdrawal of treatment in neurointensive care, and the rarely questioned view that consciousness is essential to personhood and moral status. Johnson challenges longstanding bioethical dogmas about DoC patients, and argues for an ethics of uncertainty for contexts where there is a need for decisive action in the presence of unavoidable uncertainty. The ethics of uncertainty refocuses ethical inquiry concerning persons with DoCs, placing less emphasis on their contested personhood, and more on inductive risk and uncertainty, on respect for autonomy, and especially on epistemic justice. With applications to various decisional contexts where uncertainty and ethical risk interact, this ethical approach enables surrogate decision makers facing fraught and risky choices to fulfill their obligations as moral and epistemic agents.


ISBN
9780190943646
Pagina's
336
Verschenen
NUR
870
Druk
1
Uitvoering
Hardback
Taal
Engels
Uitgever
OUP USA

Geneeskunde