Law and Bioethics: An Introduction (review)

The mere mention of a "survey course" strikes fear into the heart of almost anyone who has ever actually taken a law school survey course. In the world of legal academia that is the term for a course determined to cover all the information available on a given, generally very broad, topic. I chose to read Law and Bioethics: An Introduction because of my love of, and interest in, both law and bioethics. Before reading the book, I was under the impression, for no particular reason, that it would be an insight into bioethics for law students. At least that is what I was looking for. When I read the book jacket I became aware that the author, Jerry Menikoff intended the book to introduce medical and bioethics professionals to the law. Then, I actually read the four-page introduction--something I usually find useless, boring, and an overall waste of time. What a pleasant surprise! Here I found a concise but comprehensive overview of not only what the book covered, but how the topics are dealt with, and why. Had I skipped the introduction, I also would not have been aware that Menikoff is preparing a teacher's manual as a supplement to the book.

Law and Bioethics opens with a brief discussion of federalism, the legal concept older than the Constitution itself, that is at the heart of most conflicts between law and bioethics. This on-point discussion gives the reader up-front insight as to how the issues and cases in the book are going to be considered, making everything from there on flow seamlessly, from Hurley v. Eddington (59 N.E. 1058 [1901]) to Stenberg v. Carhart (120 Sup. Ct. 2597 [2000]), and nearly one hundred cases in-between, half of which are covered in considerable depth. The book does not simply drone on, in chronological order, about cases pivotal to law and bioethics. It follows a logical progression of sections and the chapters within those sections.

The style of this book sets it apart from many being published today. It is not the currently popular series of essays on a related topic, written by several different authors and put together by one or more editors, the conclusion being repeated throughout the book with a sense of an abrupt jerk from one chapter to another. Menikoff has cogently ordered the book by broad topic sections, each with relevant, narrower chapter topics, supplemented with definitive cases. Each case concludes with notes and questions, as well as an occasional, brief author commentary that smoothly maneuvers the reader into the next case or chapter.

Part I is strictly legal based. Menikoff provides a concise exploration into how bioethics and the U.S. Constitution are related. It is a brief study of why art often imitates life in the world of clinical bioethics. Part II is an obvious starting point--reproduction. The rudimentary legal issues of "due process" and "equal protection" are discussed under the chapter titled "Right to Privacy," where the author considers the United States Supreme Court cases of Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479 [1965]) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (405 U.S. 439 [1972]), regarding the education of people about birth control, and the use of birth control devices. Those cases established a legal right to reproductive privacy. They were preceded by the seminal, related case of Buck v. Bell (274 U.S. 200 [1927]) and followed by Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113 [1973)] and the soon-to-be-equally-familiar-to-bioethicists Stenberg v. Cathart, which revisits abortion under the pseudonym of "partial birth abortion." Bioethicists will find more interesting than pertinent the legally convoluted but classic family-law case of Michael H. v. Gerald D. (491 U.S. 110 [1989]). Also included in the section on reproduction is a surprisingly current (considering the usual time discrepancies between writing a book and its actual publication) chapter on...