Of Balloons and Bicycles—or—The Relationship between Ethical Theory and Practical Judgment

What has moral theory to do with practical judgment? The practical ethicist can move by analogy from case to case, saying of most new cases, “Oh, I think I've been here before.” Theory, ascending to a broader view, can provide directions when the ethicist finds herself in unfamiliar territory.     

Prevention—How Misuse of a Concept Undercuts Its Worth

Some health leaders and researchers have launched mass prevention programs without sound biomedical groundwork. They have oversold the benefits of prevention and underestimated the secondary effects. Some have forced nonmedical concerns into the medical model. Others have blurred the distinctions between prevention and other measures such as screening or therapy. Some have transferred responsibility for disease to the victim. A few have imputed magical powers to certain symbols of prevention, in order to create an illusion of control.     

Creative Democracy—the Task Still before Us

This essay looks to Thomas Jefferson and John Dewey, as well as a contemporary political theorist, Kevin O'Leary, for some guidance in confronting the present crisis in American democratic norms and practices—including that swirling around issues of public health.     

The Evil That Men Think—And Do

Book reviewed in this article: Wickedness: A Philosophical Essay . By Mary Midgley. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ordinary Vices . By Judith Shklar. Cambridge: Harvard University Press Immorality . By Ronald D. Milo. Princeton: Princeton University Press     

Physician-Assisted Suicide: Promoting Autonomy—Or Medicalizing Suicide?

Assisted suicide, many argue, honors self-determination in returning control of their dying to patients themselves. But physician assistance and measures proposed to safeguard patients from coercion in fact return ultimate authority over this “private and deeply personal” decision to medicine and society.