Medicine Health and Bioethics: Essential Primary Sources (Social Issues Primary Sources Collection)

Grade 9 Up–Speeches, legislation, articles, letters, interviews, literature, photographs, personal essays, and advertisements have been selected to represent a sweeping view of events over the last 200 years. The volume opens with an extensive chronology. Next are 160 articles, divided into 8 sections: Biomedical Science, Clinical Medicine, War and Medicine, Industry and Medicine, Public Health, Wellness and Health, Alternative Medicine, and Bioethics. Each selection includes an essay discussing the significance of the document, information on its author, notes providing historical and social context, and a list of further resources. The materials, some complete and others excerpted, are presented mostly chronologically within each section. Documents on hot-button issues include a 2004 United Nations report on human cloning, a 2005 newspaper report on Terri Schiavo’s death, and a 2004 report on stem-cell research from the President’s Council on Bioethics. Of historical interest are entries on early developments in antiseptic surgery, identification of particular bacteria, and Florence Nightingale’s commentary On the State of Rural Hygiene. While a document may represent a particular viewpoint, the ensuing commentary presents a balanced discussion. Well-captioned black-and-white photographs aid in establishing context. An overload of headings and subheadings tends to obscure the primary-source documents themselves and compromise the presentation. Readers may take some time figuring out just how this book works, although the index is helpful.–Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Primary sources give students and researchers a glimpse into important events by providing the words and images of the original participants. This new volume in Gale’s Social Issues Primary Sources Collection focuses on medicine, health, and bioethics from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. An international group of scholars provided commentary to help place the chosen primary sources in context. The interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the links between the medical and the social sciences.The book is divided into chapters covering eight broad areas, among them “Biomedical Science,” “Clinical Medicine,” “War and Medicine,” “Public Health,” and “Alternative Medicine.” A general introduction notes that medical discoveries are also important social milestones that improve life and sometimes raise complicated ethical issues. A brief essay about the use of primary sources and a chronology appear at the beginning of the book. Each chapter has an introduction explaining the topic. The entries list the source type; primary source; key facts about the source (date, creator, citation, notes about the creator); significance (importance and impact of the events related to the primary source); and further resources. The types of primary source material offered include newspaper and journal articles, letters, images, research reports, hearing transcripts, and excerpts from diaries. They cover a wide range of topics: John Snow’s map showing the Broad Street pump as the source of London’s 1854 cholera outbreak; Francesco C. Antommarchi’s detailed anatomical drawings; Henry A. Blackmun’s decision in Roe v. Wade; and Frederick Grant Benting and Charles Herbert Best’s article about the internal secretions of the pancreas. A list of sources consulted appears at the end of the book.This is a very useful tool for students doing research because it offers original documents along with material that provides social and historical context. Since the primary sources are not full text, readers who need more depth will have to obtain the complete document elsewhere. Medicine, Health, and Bioethics: Essential Primary Sources is a good source for school and public library collections. Barbara BibelCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved