Defining Personhood

Sarah Bishop Merrill has served as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, and as Associate Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University Calumet, Hammond, Indiana. She has also taught in the Graduate and Continuing Studies Division of Union College, Schenectady, New York; at Russell Sage College, Troy, New York; and at Mount Saint Mary College, Newburgh, New York. In 1986, she was selected as a Fellow of the Center for Women in Government, and served as the first Agency Fellow in the New York State Department of Social Services, Commissioner’s Office, assisting the Legislative Liaison in the Office of Intergovernmental Relations. Her first book, Abeunt Studia in Mores: A Festschrift for Helga Doblin, considered central philosophical issues in teaching and learning. Her current work concerns moral psychology and applied ethics, especially environmental ethics and issues related to the profession of “constructor” in the built environment. Her next book, Muddy Boots, will consider ethical challenges in construction contracting and engineering. She received her M.S. in Linguistics from Georgetown University, and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Albany, with additional graduate work in Health Systems Management at Union University’s Institute of Administration and Management. She is the mother of two grown sons.

Editorial Foreword. Acknowledgments. ONE Approaches to Personhood. 1. Defining Person. 2. Arguments and Methods. 3. Problems, Puzzles, and Pitfalls in Uses of Person. 4. The Moral and the Metaphysical Mingled. 5. Locke on Person. 6. Rousseau. 7. Kant. 8. Historical Summary. 9. Defining Personhood in Biomedical Ethics. 10. How Is Person Defined? From Vagueness to Clarity in Normative Terminology. 11. Personhood and Necessary and Sufficient Conditions. 12. Inventory of the Biomedical Ethics Literature. TWO Distinctive Features of Person and Quality of Clinical Care. 1. Introduction: Methodology and Hypotheses. 2. Definition by Dialogue. 3. The Questionnaires and the Interviewing Process. 4. The Adjectival Approach to Terms Related to Personhood. 5. Subject Response. 6. The Interviewing Process. 7. Three Hypotheses and the Fourth: Minimalism and Maximalism. 8. Consensus on the Variables. 9. Significance. 10. The Features. 11. Features Not Included. THREE A Theoretical Framework for Interpreting the Data. 1. Distinctive Features: A Conceptual Model from Linguistics. 2. Findings. 3. Implications for Quality of Care. 4. Quality of Care Defined. FOUR Implications for Clinical Practice and Public Policy. 1. Person as an Essentially Contested Concept. 2. Peirce, Gallie, Signs, and Consensus. 3. Why Is This Theory Practical? 4. Political Abuses of Conditions of Personhood. 5. Personhood in Medical Education. 6. Last Thoughts about Sufficient Conditions. 7. The Final Defense. 8. Implications for Public Policy. 9. Implications for Moral Theory. Notes. Bibliography. Appendix I Interview Scripts and Questionnaires. Appendix II. Quality Assessment Charts. About the Author. Index.