Bioethics and Medical Issues in Literature

Many of the bioethical and medical issues challenging society today have been anticipated and addressed in literature ranging from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Albert Camus’s The Plague to Margaret Edson's Wit. The ten works of fiction explored in this book stimulate lively dialogue on topics like bioterrorism cloning organ transplants obesity and heart disease sexually transmitted diseases and civil and human rights. Chapters are devoted to broad categories such as technology’s creature contagions/isolations illness and culture and end-of-life diseases and death with each chapter examining two major literary works.