Doing Right: A Practical Guide to Biomedical Ethics is a concise and practical guide to ethical decision-making in medicine. The text is aimed at second- and third-year one-semester ethics courses offered in medical schools, health sciences departments, and nursing programs. By taking an applied approach rather than a theoretical approach, this text serves the needs of medical and nursing students, residents, and practicing physicians by sorting through questions of moral principles relevant to the diverse and growing number of healthcare professionals. The many topics covered include truth telling, refusal of treatment, assisted suicide, managing error, and reproductive choice.

Introduction; 1. Ethics Matters: Principles and Ethically Sound Medicine; 2. The Almost Revolution: Autonomy and Patient-Based Care; 3. No Man an Island: Confidentiality and Trust; 4. The Power to Heal: Truth, Lies, and Deception in Clinical Practice; 5. The Power to Choose: Due Care and Informed Consent; 6. The Waning and Waxing Self: Capacity and Incapacity in Medical Care; 7. Helping and Not Harming: Beneficence and Non-Maleficence; 8. Conduct Becoming: Medical Professionalism and Managing Error; 9. Beyond the Patient: Doing Justice in Medical Care; 10. Labour Pains: Ethics and New Life; 11. A Dark Wood: End-of-Life Decisions; Conclusion: Where to Go From Here; End Notes; Index

Philip Hebert, Professor, Dept. of Family Medicine, University of Toronto