Encyclopedia of Bioethics

[referencebooks]

Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Revised Edition

Warren Thomas Rich, Editor in Chief

Published by Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1995

This is a five volume work measuring 8.5" by 11" and running to a total of 2950 pages including an appendix that provides some codes, oaths, and directives related to bioethics; a list of additional resources, and an index; plus 65 pages of preferatory material that include a preface, an introduction, lists of contributors and members of the advisory board, and an alphabetical list of the article titles.

Some reference books are so important that they play a substantial role in the development of a scholarly field. This is one of those, at least if you believe the editor in his introduction, discussing the first edition, which was published in 1978. Bioethics has expanded greatly in importance since then, and since the publication of this one as well, over ten years ago. Probably a new reference work of this scope and depth is warranted. For the moment this one is probably an acceptable standard. In its nearly 3000 pages there are 464 articles on bioethics, understood as having a scope that includes the following topics:

• medical professional/patient relationships
  
• public health
  
• other sociopolitical issues (racism, torture, prostitution, interpersonal abuse, the death penalty)
  
• health care
  
• fertility and reproduction
  
• biomedical and behavioral research
  
• mental health and behavioral issues
  
• sexuality and gender
  
• death and dying
  
• genetics
  
• population ethics
  
• organ and tissue transplantation and artificial organs
  
• animal welfare
  
• environmental issues relating to health
  

The full list of articles in the "C" sequence, not including sub-parts, which are listed in the table of contents:

• Care
  
• Casuistry
  
• Children
  
• Chronic Care
  
• Circumcision
  
• Civil Disobedience and Health Care
  
• Climatic Change
  
• Clinical Ethics
  
• Commercialism in Scientific Research
  
• Commitment to Mental Institutions
  
• Communication, Biomedical
  
• Compassion
  
• Competence
  
• Confidentiality
  
• Conflict of Interest
  
• Confucianism
  
• Conscience
  
• Cryonics
  

Opening volume five at random, I'm looking at the article on "Value and Valuation," which is a highly philosophical topic, not limited to bioethics but definitely underpinning much discussion within it. This article is just over five pages including the lengthy bibliography and paragraph of See Also references. Like all the articles in the book, this one is signed by the specialist responsible, in this case Thomas Ogletree. Ogletree, in this article, uses a writing style that is clear without sacficing intellectual depth, and covers the subject admirably given the limitations of length.

Opening volume one at random, I'm looking at the entry on "Adoption," another five-pager. This article has the section headings, "Historical background," "Contemporary adoption practice in the United States," "Special needs and biracial adoption," "Intercountry adoption," "The sealed-record controversy," "Search and reunion," "Open versus closed adoption," "Court battles between birth parents and adoptive parents," "Conclusion," "Bibliography." The bibliography is about three quarters of one of these 8.5" by 11" pages in length.

This is an excellent and thorough reference work, but a little dated at 11 years old.