Moral theory primer

Ethics in practice. Moral theory and the professions.

Andrew Alexandra, Seumas Miller. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2009 (ix + 278 pp). ISBN 9781742230306.

Most people who become interested in ethics or moral philosophy, I suspect, start with strong convictions about what is right or wrong in various individual instances, and then get to wondering what underlies these convictions, and whether they can be rationalised. Alexandra and Miller use this approach effectively in their book, Ethics in practice. The authors provide many literary and “real-life” case studies at the beginning of each chapter, to probe moral intuition, before exploring theories that have been advanced to make sense of morality, and the arguments for and against certain kinds of behaviour.

This is not a comprehensive overview of moral philosophy; nor does it tackle any particular area of moral philosophy in great depth. Health professionals who have already significantly engaged in the biomedical ethics literature will probably find that there is not much new here (in fact, not much at all). Abortion and embryonic stem cell research are sidestepped altogether and end-of-life decisions are dealt with in a relatively brief discussion that focuses mainly on active euthanasia.

However, possibly because it avoids these well worn areas, and addresses some often-neglected topics, I found this book refreshing. The morality of recreational drug use and its prohibition, filial responsibility, and corruption are enormous social issues that deservedly get attention. I found the chapter on professional role morality particularly useful and I intend to use some of its insights in my teaching of medical students.

The book is written in a clear, balanced, analytical style that is easy to read, and assumes no prior knowledge. It is largely a “primer”, likely to be most appealing to those (from any background) with a budding interest in ethics and moral philosophy, who have done little reading previously — my 18-year-old daughter was immediately engaged. I think it will also interest those whose interest in ethics has hitherto been with specific “biomedical” issues who would like to start to read more widely.