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Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine

Empowering Discernment

• By Patricia Elyse Terrell, Andrew J. Weaver

• Price: $43.95
• Binding: Paperback (also available in Hardback)
• Pages: 348
• Published by: Routledge
• Publication Date: 16th May 2007
• ISBN: 978-0-7890-3045-0

About the Book

Examine the impact and importance reproduction and genetics have on religious values

Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine: Empowering Discernment explains the mystery of the God-human relationship so ministers, priests, and pastors can follow the ethics and mechanics of counseling human reproductive health and be informed on issues of religion, medical experimentation, and politics. The unique book is a teaching text and a desktop reference for clergypersons and pastoral care ministers, providing them with information on the sensitive and intimate topic of reproductive health from a Christian worldview so they can advise and empower congregation members to make thoughtful decisions about health care.

Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine examines four disciplines through a Christian point of view: 1) religion based on humanity created in the image of God; 2) different varieties of ethics; 3) systems of law and politics; and 4) philosophies on experimental medicines. Each topic is grounded with its religious background, providing a practical, easy-to-follow path for Christian thinkers. The book also addresses the concerns a religious person might have about health and ministry, what genetic therapy can accomplish, the alternatives to genetic therapy, and how theology, ethics, law, and medicine apply to the issues expectant mothers face.

Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine examines:

• the major points in recognized ethical theories
  
• how Christian principles became part of secular law over time
  
• the legal dilemmas involved in protecting the health of pregnant women
  
• how and why palliative care is a viable alternative to modern therapies
  
• the politics and morality of terminating a pregnancy
  
• how to protect women from becoming research “instruments”
  
• the moral status of the embryo
  
• and much more

Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine explains God’s desire for good health by identifying ways in which Jesus is the example of what it means for every person to be “created in the image of God.” The book is a vital resource for clergypersons and pastoral care ministers.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Goals of the Book
• A Formula That Listens and Teaches: Placing Definitions and Theses into Narrative Format
• What to Expect Under Each Heading
• PART I: INFORMATION TO EQUIP DECISIONS
• Chapter 1. Humankind Created in the Image of God, Imago Dei: The Passion and Politics of Human Biology
• Introduction
• Navigating Dichotomies: Religion, Science, and a Christocentric Faith
• The Christological and Ethical Origins Inherited by Humanity
• Jesus: The Incarnate Word with Human Attributes
• Theobiogenesis: God’s Transformation of Human Biology
• Human Wholeness
• Chapter 2. Ethics: Has Morality Become a Maze or a Prism?
• Introduction: Entering the Reconstruction Zone
• Locating a Meaningful Starting Place: Definition and Goals
• Stepping Stones in Civilization: Virtue Ethics, Natural Law, Kant, and Utilitarianism
• Modern Ethics: Principle-Based Ethics, Womanist Ethics, and Mesoethics
• Concluding Remarks
• Chapter 3. What Politics? Which Legal System?
• Introducing the Systems of Law
• Religious Law: A “Living” Standard
• Codified Law Enumerates Rights and Responsibilities
• Common Law: The Law Where People Live from Day to Day
• Modes of Legal Interpretation and Converging Systems
• Reconstructing Law to Fit Biomedicine
• The International Legal Architecture for Biomedicine
• Today’s International Legal Basket for Bioethics: A Whole New Field
• Chapter 4. Medical Experimentation and Reproduction
• Introduction
• Meanings of Health and Disease
• Traditional Medicine
• The Philosophy of Holocaust Medicine
• Reproductive and Genetic Medicine
• Palliative Care: Caring for Patients with a Terminal Illness
• “The Aim of Medicine Is Health . . .”: Does Medical Science Meet Its Goal?
• PART II: APPLYING THE INFORMATION TO ISSUES IN REPRODUCTION
• Chapter 5. Issues Faced by the Expectant Mother
• Introduction
• The Expectant Mother: Advancing Self-Determination
• Educating and Counseling Maternity in a Medicalized Setting
• Abortion and the U.S. Constitution
• Motivating Ethics vis-à-vis Legislating Procreative Technology
• Chapter 6. The Moral Status of the Embryo
• Introduction
• Reflections on the Status of the Fetus
• Ethical Reflections on the Morality of Using a Fetus for Human Health
• Zygote Research
• Summoning Ethical Principles into Legal Perspectives
• What Science Cannot Know
• Appendix. Legal Documents and Cases
• Government Documents
• National Documents
• States Supreme Court Cases
• Lower Court Cases
• Notes
• Sources Consulted
• Index