Ethical Choices in Contemporary Medicine rejects the standard medical ethics models of \"rights\" language and shows how the bioethical problems that receive attention from the media and public are explicable in terms of the epistemological foundations of science and medicine. These epistemological concerns include how medical knowledge is established (scientific validity), how medical protocols are administered (checks and balances), how medical certainty is evaluated (probability) and medical responsibility is framed (personal or collective), how medical knowledge is transmitted (popular media versus professional journals), and how medical care is allocated (insurance policies, government subsidies). Mary Ann Cutter and Raphael Sassower examine present concerns about medicine in terms of cultural context and suggest that it may be necessary to go beyond rational, parochial, ethical dialogue given the conflicting frameworks, agendas, and attitudes. They show that, in the postmodern age, two interrelated issues surface when evaluating medicine: on one hand, there is a strong critique of science and the privileges associated with scientific discourse; on the other, there is a deep-seated quest for certainty in all medical matters. | Ethical Choices in Contemporary Medicine by Raphael Sassower, Paperback | Indigo Chapters