With the advances of medicine, questions of medical ethics have become more urgent and are now considered of great social and political significance. An innovatively designed, activity-based workbook, this text was prepared using papers and case studies collected from several countries in the European Union. It reflects the issues and concerns that confront clinical practitioners throughout Europe and elsewhere today and presents varying national responses in law and policy to these concerns, as identified by ethicists, lawyers, theologians and practitioners. The problems they examine include the relationship between medical research and medical practice, elementary regulations of medical research, the complexity of informed consent, and the role of the sponsor or scientific community.

Urban Wiesing studied medicine, philosophy, sociology and history of medicine. Since 1998 he has been Professor and Chair of Medical Ethics at the University of Tübingen.

Chapter 1. Recruiting Patients
Chapter 2. The Conceptual Foundations of Scientific Research and Medical Practice
Chapter 3. The Case of DNA Samples
Chapter 4. Consent, Inducement and Conflict of Interest in Medical Research and Development
Chapter 5. Dignity of Man in Medical Research
Chapter 6. The Case of Saliva Samples
Chapter 7. Paternalism vs. Informed Consent: Issues in Research Ethics
Chapter 8. The Case of Challenging Behaviour
Chapter 9. Philosophical Reflections on Research with Cognitively Impaired Persons
Chapter 10. An Open Trial of Drug X for Alzheimer's Disease
Chapter 11. The Case of the Open Label Extension Study
Chapter 12. Ethical Issues Surrounding the Use of Women as Subjects in Clinical Research
Chapter 13. Bad Science/Bad Ethics?

Bibliography
Index