Helen Watt
Routledge, 1999, £7.99
ISBN 0415215749
Rating: 2/4

Can a human being cease to be a human person - for example, a foetus in utero or someone in a persist. ent vegetative state? At what point does an embryo attain human status and full human rights of protection? In under 100 pages, but weighing philosophically a hundredweight, The book systematically deconstructs all the possible arguments that can be given in support of euthanasia, "letting die," abortion, and embryo wastage as a consequence of in vitro fertilisation.

This unidirectional and thorough treat. ment leaves you with a strange sense of dis. comfort and emptiness at the end of each chapter. The discussion leads you through the twists and turns of each situation to a final conclusion that, theoretically at least, there can be no defence of any situation that brings about death. Central to this non. religious and natural philosophy is that all forms of human existence, be it a person in a persistent vegetative state or an embryo, have equal moral status. If they all have equal moral status then you cannot decide the other's fate.

Yet medical treatment was lawfully with. drawn in the seminal case of Hillsborough victim, Tony Bland, and abortion is practised legally. Doctors are able, in certain situations, to act from a position of moral superiority. This book, however, casts a doubt on how those decisions came about.

Modern health care continues, almost daily, to raise ever more complex moral issues that many of us wrangle with on a purely instinctual or emotional level. Students entering medicine today will need to be better equipped to deal with these situations. They will need to be confident in their own actions, but patients will expect guidance on the moral implications of medical procedures as well. New curriculums in some medical schools are now putting emphasis on the greater need to teach medical ethics. Helping students to develop a knowledge of current ethical guidelines, of the professional codes of practice, and of the law relating to medicine is beginning to be realised as an essential requirement of becoming a good, and safe, doctor. This book serves as a short introduction to the complex and debatable field of healthcare ethics.