This second edition of A Companion to Bioethics, fully revised and updated to reflect the current issues and developments in the field, covers all the material that the reader needs to thoroughly grasp the ideas and debates involved in bioethics.;List of contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Part I. Introduction: 1. What is bioethics? a historical introduction -- Part II. Questions about bioethics: 2. Ethical theory and bioethics; 3. Culture and bioethics; 4. Gender and bioethics; 5. Religion and bioethics; 6. Law and bioethics -- Part III. Ethical approaches: 7. A principle-based approach; 8. Exceptionless rule approaches; 9. A utilitarian approach; 10. A virtue ethics approach; 11. A care approach; 12. A case approach -- Part IV. Before birth: issues involving embryos and fetuses: 13. Personhood; 14. Abortion; 15. Mother & fetus conflict; Part V Issues in reproduction; 16. Population; 17. Assisted reproduction, prenatal testing, and sex selection; 18. Cloning -- Part VI. The new genetics: 19. Gene therapy; 20. Genetic enhancement; 21. Creating and patenting new life forms; 22. Genetic counseling, testing, and screening -- Part VII. Life and death issues: 23. Medical decisions at the end of life; 24. Severely disabled newborns; 25. Death, brain death, and persistent vegetative state; 26. Advance directives; 27. Voluntary euthanasia, suicide, and physician-assisted suicide; 28. The slippery slope argument.;Part VIII. Resource allocation: 29. Deciding between patients; 30. Society's allocation of resources for health; 31. Is There a right to health care and, if so, what does it encompass? -- Part IX. Organ donations: 32. A world of transferable parts -- Part X. Global health-care issues: 33. Global health responsibilities; 34. Developing world challenges; 35. Global pharmaceutical markets; 36. Infectious disease; 37. AIDS as a global health emergency -- Part XI. Experimentation with humans and animals: 38. Research involving human beings; 39. Regulating experimentation in research and medical practice; 40. Research using preimplantation human embryos; 41. The moral status of animals and their use as experimental subjects -- Part XII. Ethical issues in the practice of health care: 42. Confidentiality; 43. Truth-telling; 44. Informed consent and patient autonomy; 45. Patients doubtfully capable or incapable of consent; 46. Ethics in nursing practice; 47. Global trends in nursing ethics -- Part XIII. The teaching and practice of bioethics: 48. Ethics committees and ethics consultants; 49. Teaching ethics in the health professions.