Neurosurgical Ethics in Practice: Value-based Medicine (Hardcover, 2014 ed.)

Good neurosurgical practice is based not only on evidence, skills, and modern equipment, but also on good values. Young surgeons often learn about ethical behavior by observing the behavior of their teachers in different situations, but for several reasons, this is not enough. This book discusses the ethical issues that arise during the daily practice of neurosurgery. It will be especially informative for neurosurgeons, other surgeons, physicians, residents, medical students, and allied health care providers. The book is not a philosophical expose but an easily readable and highly practical road map on how to navigate ethically challenging situations in neurosurgical and other practice. The book is divided into five parts addressing general issues, patients' rights, end of life issues, neurosurgeons' duties, and neurosurgeons and society. The contributing authors are well- established neurosurgeons and other doctors with long experience and from different backgrounds. They discuss ethical problems encountered in everyday practice, introduced by cases, and in all, there are more than 50 neurosurgical cases drawn from real life. The editors introduce in the title and throughout the book the term "value-based medicine" which reinforces that while modern medicine and surgery have come very far in technical aspects, the core of what we do must be based on the values embodied in bioethics.