The Patient as Person

Physicians are increasingly wrestling with new moral choices. This work by theologian Paul Ramsey, first published 30 years ago, anticipated and addressed these moral and ethical issues. This second edition includes a new foreword and essays that should help to locate and interpret Ramsey.

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As physicians are faced with new and wonderful options for saving lives, transplanting organs, and furthering research, they also must wrestle with new and troubling choices—who should receive scarce and vital treatment, how we determine when life ends, what limits should be placed on care for the dying, and more. This book by renowned theologian Paul Ramsey, first published thirty years ago, anticipated these moral and ethical issues and addressed them with cogency and power, providing the intellectual foundations for the field of bioethics. This second edition of Ramsey’s classic work includes a new foreword by Margaret Farley and essays by Albert R. Jonsen and William F. May that help to locate and interpret Ramsey historically and intellectually.

Praise for the earlier edition:
“For its strong, well-argued positions, its documentation and references, and its assistance in bringing confused strands of thought into focus, The Patient as Person willbe used for many years.”—Michael Novak, New York Times

“Amid the plethora of books on medical ethics that merely skim the surface, this one solidly examines most aspects of the question––from the definition of death to organ transplantation.”—Christianity Today

“Notable for its clear moral reasoning and its thorough examination of all morally relevant issues.”—Journal of Religion

“[Ramsey’s] study is a masterpiece of thoroughness in evaluating conflicting moral claims which become explicit in crucial medical situations.”—Dolores Dooley-Clarke, Philosophical Studies