A Philosophical Disease: Bioethics, Culture and Identity

Drawing on the work of writers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Walker Percy, Paul Auster and Graham Greene, this text brings to the bioethical discussion larger philosophical questions about the sense and significance of human life. Carl Elliott explores the relationship of illness to identity, and of mental illness to spiritual illness. He also examines the treatment of children born with ambiguous genitalia, the claims of deaf culture, and the morality of self-sacrifice. This book focuses on a different sensibility in bioethics - how we use concepts, and how they relate to our own particular social institutions.