M. P. Battin, L. P. Francis, J. A. Jacobson and C. B. Smith. The Patient as Victim and Vector: Ethics and Infectious Disease

Abstract

Though the ethical issues raised by infectious disease are every bit as interesting and important as those that bioethics has traditionally focused on, the topic of infectious disease has—until recently anyway—been largely neglected in bioethics discourse. The Patient as Victim and Vector documents and explains this neglect—and then makes up much lost ground. This is the first authored book on the general topic of ethical issues associated with infectious disease. Given that, and the competence and comprehensiveness of the treatment this topic receives in The Patient as Victim and Vector, this is a monumental volume. It is an essential reading for anyone interested in public health ethics—and it should be read by clinicians, public health practitioners and policy makers as well as academic ethicists. A book like this could hardly have been produced by a single author. One of the many virtues of this volume is that it brings multiple disciplinary perspectives to bear on the topic of infectious disease ethics. Its authors include experts in bioethics, philosophy, health law and infectious disease medicine. Obviously working together exceptionally well as a team, they have succeeded in producing a scientifically informed, philosophically and legally rigorous, highly compelling treatment of their topic.