Description
Beleaguered countries struggling against aggression or powerful nations defending others from brutal regimes mobilize medicine to wage just war. As states funnel medical resources to maintain unit readiness and conserve military capabilities, numerous ethical challenges foreign to peacetime medicine result. Force conservation drives combat hospitals to prioritize warfighter care over all others. Civilians find themselves bereft of medical attention; prison officials force feed hunger-striking detainees; policymakers manage healthcare to win the hearts and minds of local nationals; and scientists develop neuro-technologies or nanosurgery to create super soldiers. When the fighting ends, intractable moral dilemmas rebound. Post-war justice demands enormous investments of time, resources and personnel. But losing interest and no longer zealous, war-weary nations forget their duties to rebuild ravaged countries abroad and rehabilitate their war-torn veterans at home. Addressing these incendiary issues, Military Medical Ethics in Contemporary Armed Conflict integrates the ethics of medicine and the ethics of war. Medical ethics in times of war is not identical to medical ethics in times of peace, but a unique discipline. Without war, there is no military medicine, and without just war there is no military medical ethics. Military Medical Ethics in Contemporary Armed Conflict revises, defends, and rebuts wartime medical practices, just as it lays the moral foundation for casualty care in future conflicts.
About the Author
Michael L. Gross is Professor of Political Science at The University of Haifa, Israel, specializing in military ethics and military medical ethics and related questions of national security. His articles have appeared in numerous prominent journals, and his books include Ethics and Activism (Cambridge, 1997), Bioethics and Armed Conflict (MIT Press, 2006), Moral Dilemmas of Modern War (Cambridge, 2010); The Ethics of Insurgency (Cambridge, 2015) and two edited volumes, Military Medical Ethics for the 21st Century (Routledge, 2013) and Soft War (Cambridge, 2017). He is editor of the Routledge book series War, Conflict and Ethics and has led workshops on battlefield ethics, medicine, and national security for the Dutch Ministry of Defense, The US Army Medical Department, the Defence Medical Services (UK), The US Naval Academy, the Israel Defense Forces and the International Committee of Military Medicine.
Reviews
Gross's book will undoubtedly serve as a mainstay among practitioners and theorists alike. Though it focuses almost exclusively on the United States and the United Kingdom in the Middle Eastern wars of the past two decades, much of the discussion applies to a host of other contexts as well. Though the book is capacious in its treatment of topics pertaining to military ethics, there is a univocal thesis animating the discussion at each turn: the idea that military medical ethics is not a disjunctive discipline with Janus-faced loyalties to medical ethics on the one hand and to military ethics on the other, but instead a sui generis discipline in its own right, which he painstakingly develops... Gross's book will, I believe, set the agenda among practitioners and theorists of medical ethics in war for years to come. It is a monumental achievement. * Bioethics *
Philosophically sophisticated, well written, and thoroughly researched, this comprehensive exploration of military medical ethics will interest students of medical ethics more generally and be a particularly valuable contribution for scholars seeking to explore the ethics of war and the often-overlooked medical ramifications of just-war thinking. * L. Steffen, CHOICE *
Michael Gross has dared to do what few have done-bring the ethics of going to war in line with the obligations of modern medicine. This is no simple merger of military and medical ethics. It is a new field. And those who study war, go to war, or provide medical care for those injured in war will be indebted to Gross's meticulous scholarship and lucid and critical analysis of scores of complex case studies from recent wars. * Nancy Sherman, author Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience and University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University *
Michael L. Gross has developed the most comprehensive framework for the analysis of bioethics issues in the military setting. This book, taking into account the changing nature of armed conflict in the 21st century, will be the authoritative reference point for many years to come. * Jonathan D. Moreno, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor, University of Pennsylvania *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190694944
Author Michael L. Gross
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 163mm * 23mm
About the Author
Michael L. Gross is Professor of Political Science at The University of Haifa, Israel, specializing in military ethics and military medical ethics and related questions of national security. His articles have appeared in numerous prominent journals, and his books include Ethics and Activism (Cambridge, 1997), Bioethics and Armed Conflict (MIT Press, 2006), Moral Dilemmas of Modern War (Cambridge, 2010); The Ethics of Insurgency (Cambridge, 2015) and two edited volumes, Military Medical Ethics for the 21st Century (Routledge, 2013) and Soft War (Cambridge, 2017). He is editor of the Routledge book series War, Conflict and Ethics and has led workshops on battlefield ethics, medicine, and national security for the Dutch Ministry of Defense, The US Army Medical Department, the Defence Medical Services (UK), The US Naval Academy, the Israel Defense Forces and the International Committee of Military Medicine.
Reviews
Gross's book will undoubtedly serve as a mainstay among practitioners and theorists alike. Though it focuses almost exclusively on the United States and the United Kingdom in the Middle Eastern wars of the past two decades, much of the discussion applies to a host of other contexts as well. Though the book is capacious in its treatment of topics pertaining to military ethics, there is a univocal thesis animating the discussion at each turn: the idea that military medical ethics is not a disjunctive discipline with Janus-faced loyalties to medical ethics on the one hand and to military ethics on the other, but instead a sui generis discipline in its own right, which he painstakingly develops... Gross's book will, I believe, set the agenda among practitioners and theorists of medical ethics in war for years to come. It is a monumental achievement. * Bioethics *
Philosophically sophisticated, well written, and thoroughly researched, this comprehensive exploration of military medical ethics will interest students of medical ethics more generally and be a particularly valuable contribution for scholars seeking to explore the ethics of war and the often-overlooked medical ramifications of just-war thinking. * L. Steffen, CHOICE *
Michael Gross has dared to do what few have done-bring the ethics of going to war in line with the obligations of modern medicine. This is no simple merger of military and medical ethics. It is a new field. And those who study war, go to war, or provide medical care for those injured in war will be indebted to Gross's meticulous scholarship and lucid and critical analysis of scores of complex case studies from recent wars. * Nancy Sherman, author Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience and University Professor and Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University *
Michael L. Gross has developed the most comprehensive framework for the analysis of bioethics issues in the military setting. This book, taking into account the changing nature of armed conflict in the 21st century, will be the authoritative reference point for many years to come. * Jonathan D. Moreno, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor, University of Pennsylvania *
Book Information
ISBN 9780190694944
Author Michael L. Gross
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 567g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 163mm * 23mm
