An Ethics Casebook for Hospitals ― Practical Approaches to Everyday Ethics Consultations

Originally published in 1999, this classic textbook includes twenty-six cases with commentary and bibliographic resources designed especially for medical students and the training of ethics consultants. The majority of the cases reflect the day-to-day moral struggles within the walls of hospitals. As a result, the cases do not focus on esoteric, high-tech dilemmas like genetic engineering or experimental protocols, but rather on fundamental problems that are pervasive in basic healthcare delivery in the United States: where to send a frail, elderly patient who refuses to go to a nursing home, what role the family should play in making a treatment decision, what a hospital should do when it is getting stuck with too many unpaid bills.

This thoroughly revised and updated second edition includes thirteen new cases, five of which are designated as "skill builder" cases aimed specifically at persons who wish to conduct clinical ethics case consultations. The new cases highlight current ethical challenges that arise in caring for populations such as undocumented immigrant patients, persons with substance use disorders involving opioids, and ethical issues that arise beyond the bedside at the organizational level. The reader is invited to use the supplemental videos and assessment tools available on the website of the Loyola University Chicago ACES project (www.LUC.edu/ethicsconsult).

Mark Kuczewski, PhD, is the Fr. Michael I. English, S.J., Professor of Medical Ethics, Director of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, and Chair of the Department of Medical Education at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. A former President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Mark has been a leader in the effort to promote quality in clinical ethics case consultation.

Rosa Lynn B. Pinkus, PhD, served as Professor of Medicine/Neurosurgery, Associate director for the Center of Bioethics and Health Law and director of the Consortium Ethics Program, University of Pittsburgh. She retired in December 2013 and currently teaches a graduate bioethics course for the Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh.

Katherine Wasson, PhD, MPH, is an associate professor and bioethicist at the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She is an educator, researcher and clinical ethics consultant and the Principal Investigator for the Assessing Clinical Ethics Skills project.