Dr. Robert Baker Co-Edits First-Ever History of Medical Ethics

Volume Offers Multi-Cultural Perspective on Topics Such as

Nazi Medicine and Abortion

SCHENECTADY, NY --- It has been 12 years in the making, and now a Union Graduate College professor is making history as co-editor of the first history of the controversial field of medical ethics. Dr. Robert Baker, director of the Union Graduate College – Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Bioethics Program says the four-pound, 876-page Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics, includes several firsts:

·        The first comprehensive, scholarly account of the global history of medical ethics
·        The first chronology or timeline of important persons and texts in medical ethics
·        The first concise biographies of major contributors to the field

Baker co-edited the Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics with Laurence B. McCullough, Ph.D., A Dalton Tomlin Chair in Medical Ethics and Health Policy Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas. He says the volume doesn’t shy away from controversial topics.

“Some might say ‘Nazi medical ethics’ is an oxymoron, but our authors argue the Nazis had a fundamentally different concept of ethics,” Baker said. “They believed in putting the public first, so the same group committing genocide was also banning cigarettes and encouraging organic farming.”
 
Other contributors explain that euthanasia and abortion at not banned by all religions. Baker and McCullough worked with 56 historians and bioethicists from 20 countries to provide the first global perspective on medical ethics issues such as conception and organ transplants. Designed as a reference tool, the volume also examines the role bioethics has played during notable time periods such as apartheid and communism.

Dr. Arthur Caplan, Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the nation's leading bioethicists, Caplan says the new Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics will play a vital role in understanding today’s complex bioethics challenges.
 
"The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics provides what has been missing for so long – a context, a history and analysis of the interrelationship between contemporary bioethics and its past," said Dr. Caplan,  “No other volume addresses the history, culture and religious roots of medical ethics with the care and rigor of this volume. There is simply no better introduction to the evolution of medical ethics."

Dr. Matthew K. Wynia, Director, of the American Medical Association’s Institute for Ethics also praised the Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics, as “an extraordinary resource.”

“Going far beyond mainstream historical accounts, they truly span the globe, dipping into fascinating and important historical streams worldwide,” Wynia said. “The result isn’t merely a reference book; it is collection of innovative new views of the roles medical ethics has played in the intellectual, religious, philosophical, and medical practice histories of nations – and of all humanity.  Without doubt this book will become a standard reference text for historians.  But it will also spark new insights into the present and future of medical ethics.”
 

Baker says the book is designed as a reference for physicians, hospitals, lawyers, academics and other working in medical ethics. But he also hopes the volume will lend credibility to his field, changing public perceptions about the important role medical ethics plays.
 
“Many people think medical ethics consists of the Hippocratic oath and human cloning, but the field is growing rapidly” Baker says. “In the 1970s, when bioethics was first recognized in the U.S., you could fit our entire profession in a classroom. By contrast, the Union Graduate College – Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Bioethics Program has doubled in size in just two years. Medical ethics is playing an increasingly important role in health care and public policy. This text provides history to help those making tough decisions and shaping today's laws and policies—including those attempting to reform American healthcare.”

The volume has already been featured in Health Progress, the official journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States.

After 12 years on the project, Baker says the Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics has a pretty interesting history of its own. The book’s introduction chronicles the many obstacles the editors faced in completing the book, including multiple illnesses, computer crashes, major floods (one in Schenectady and one in Texas) as well as the death of several contributors and the volume’s first editor.

Despite the challenges, Baker says he and McCulloch are already working on their next bioethics project. Together with fellow Union Graduate College-Mount Sinai colleague, Professor Alicia Ouellette of the Albany Law School on a new volume, The Cambridge Dictionary of Bioethics.

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