Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues, Twelfth Edition is a debate-style reader designed to introduce students to controversies in bioethics. The readings, which represent the arguments of leading philosophers and social commentators, reflect opposing positions and have been selected for their liveliness and substance and because of their value in a debate framework.
For each issue, the editor provides a concise introduction and postscript summary. The introduction sets the stage for the debate as it is argued in the "yes" and "no" readings. The postscript briefly reviews the opposing opinions and suggests additional readings on the controversial issue under discussion.
By requiring students to analyze contradictory positions and reach considered judgments, Taking Sides actively develops students' critical thinking skills. It is this development of critical thinking skills that is the ultimate purpose of each of the volumes in the widely acclaimed Taking Sides program.
Selected, Edited and with Introductions by Carol Levine
About the Author
Carol Levine is an authority on the legal, ethical, and public policy aspects of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
Levine has been a leader in forging working groups to examine the pressing issues posed by AIDS, and her voice was among the first to address some of the thorniest dimensions of the epidemic. With the number of orphans in New York City increasing to levels unknown since the nineteenth century--as a result of the AIDS epidemic--Levine founded the Orphan Project to illuminate the plight of these children and define remedial social and policy options. In her current post as project director of Families and Health Care at the United Hospital Fund in New York, she continues this work and looks at trends toward managed care and home-based, outpatient care, as well as examining how those trends in health-care financing and delivery are affecting families.
Levine is the editor of Always on Call: When Illness Turns Families into Caregivers (2004) and co-editor of The Cultures of Caregiving: Conflict and Common Ground among Families, Health Professionals, and Policy Makers (2004). She was the executive director of the Citizens Commission on AIDS (1987-91).
Levine received a B.A. (1956) from Cornell University and an M.A. (1957) from Columbia University.
