Bibliography of Bioethics ed. by Dr. Leroy Walters (review)

498 BOOK REVIEWS international law, a fragmentary manifestation of some of those natural principles of public wrong which justify the refusal of formal cooperation by individuals or groups in systems of illicit preparation " (p. 264). What applies to preparation applies also to other dimensions of modern warfare. It is. in this context that the author finds some significant rapprochements between the positive jurisprudence as tested, e. g., at the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials, and the natural law principles. Such contemporary experience together with serious study of tradition may prove, as the author rightly claims, that the modern jurisprudence rejected in fact a distorted natural l~w. Could not the same be said for at least some modern criticism of the "traditional" moral theology? Mr. Midgley describes how this distortion developed and how it could be corrected. But whether his discovery of the original is complete and whether the original itself without a modern retouch can be convincing enough to the modern mind may still be a question. With this question open, the students in law and philosophy will find Mr. Midgley's research both instructive and stimulating. St. Albert's College Oakland, California JANKO ZAGAR, o. P. Bibliography of Bioethics. Edited by DR. LEROY WALTERS. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. Pp. 249. $24.00. The term " bioethics " is relatively new and still perhaps raises a few eyebrows. Van Rensselaer Potter, a cancer researcher, claims to have coined it when he wrote Bioethics: Bridge to the Future (1971). The content of bioethics can be broadly described as problems and issues of the life sciences. A mini-controversy has developed among bioethicists as to how to understand the nature of their endeavor. Lawyers, physicians, scientists, ethicists, theologians, sociologists, and experts in other disciplines have expressed a special concern for the problem that man faces in the field of medicine in general and biomedical research in particular. If the interest is new, many of the problems are not. Nor can it be said that the academic community, especially physicians and theologians, has not been concerned with the ethical implications always present in the practice of the medical profession. Though of lesser scope than the present studies, there existed manuals on medical ethics serving as textbooks for courses included in the curriculum of medical schools with religious affiliation . Well known medical codes and directives isued by national or international medical associations served as ethical guidelines for the practice of medicine. BOOK REVIEWS 499 The spirited controversy in the sixties on the morality of contraception and that on abortion since the beginning of this decade have attracted a widened interest on the part of many sorts of people. The interesting studies of Dr. Kubler Ross on death and dying, considered weird at the beginning, came to enjoy a popular acceptance outside of the medical field. Rapid advances in biology, science, and medicine, particularly in genetic and fetal research, and the possibility of cloning and behavioral modification became issues of major ethical concern because of their multidisciplinary implications. Funds from private foundations and some government agencies helped to establish institutes and centers whose primary goal has been to study the humanistic and ethical aspects of the new biomedical problems. Among such centers one can mention the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences at Hastings-on-Hudson, the Kennedy Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, Bioethics and Population at Georgetown University, the Interfaculty Program in Medical Ethics at Harvard University (also funded by Kennedy), and the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston . Other medical schools are creating similar institutes or introducing special programs as part of the medical curriculum. This scientific curiosity, however, has gone beyond the borders of the academic world. Cases such as Roe vs. Wade, decided by the Supreme Court, Dr. Edelin's well publicized conviction in Boston, and lately the Karen Quinlan controversy have captured national and international attention . Publications in overwhelming quantity, special monographs, selected readings, articles in the scientific journals, popular magazine'S, and the daily press have appeared, with the result that it is becoming almost impossible, even for the specialist, to keep up with them. It is within...