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Integrating the ethics of medicine and the ethics of war,
Military Medical Ethics in Contemporary Armed Conflict offers theorists and practitioners, clinicians and commanders the tools they need to distribute scarce medical resources in wartime. Emphasizing that military medicine's goal is to maintain unit readiness and the force capabilities necessary to wage just war, Michael L. Gross instructs readers on when and how compatriot and host nation war fighters, local civilians, detainees, and veterans should receive medical attention. Readers will see how medicine functions also as a weapon of war. To this end, military forces deploy medical care to win local hearts and minds and harness medical science to enhance war fighter capabilities.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I: THEORY: Military Medical Ethics and Just War
- Chapter 1: The Principles of Military Medical Ethics
- Chapter 2: Patient Rights and Practitioner Duties
- Chapter 3: Moral Reasoning in Military Medical Ethics
- Part II: ON THE BATTLEFIELD: Caring for the Wounded of War
- Chapter 4: Military Medicine in Contemporary Armed Conflict: Iraq and Afghanistan Revisited
- Chapter 5: Combat Casualty Care
- Chapter 6: Detainees and Prisoners of War
- Chapter 7: Care and Compensation for Civilian Victims of War
- Part III: OFF THE BATTLEFIELD: Medicine as Weapon of War
- Chapter 8: Military Medical Research and Experimentation
- Chapter 9: Warfighter Enhancement: Research and Technology
- Chapter 10: Medical Diplomacy and the Battle for Hearts and Minds
- Part IV: AFTERWAR: Post-War Justice and the Responsibility to Rebuild
- Chapter 11: Post-War Health Reconstruction
- Chapter 12: Veteran Healthcare
- Conclusion: Military Medical Ethics and Just War: The 21st Century
About the author
Michael L. Gross is Professor of Political Science at The University of Haifa, Israel, specializing in military ethics and military medical ethics and related questions of national security. His articles have appeared in numerous prominent journals, and his books include Ethics and Activism (Cambridge, 1997), Bioethics and Armed Conflict (MIT Press, 2006), Moral Dilemmas of Modern War (Cambridge, 2010); The Ethics of Insurgency (Cambridge, 2015) and two edited volumes, Military Medical Ethics for the 21st Century (Routledge, 2013) and Soft War (Cambridge, 2017). He is editor of the Routledge book series War, Conflict and Ethics and has led workshops on battlefield ethics, medicine, and national security for the Dutch Ministry of Defense, The US Army Medical Department, the Defence Medical Services (UK), The US Naval Academy, the Israel Defense Forces and the International Committee of Military Medicine.
Summary
Beleaguered countries struggling against aggression or powerful nations defending others from brutal regimes mobilize medicine to wage just war. As states funnel medical resources to maintain unit readiness and conserve military capabilities, numerous ethical challenges foreign to peacetime medicine result. Force conservation drives combat hospitals to prioritize warfighter care over all others. Civilians find themselves bereft of medical attention; prison officials force feed hunger-striking detainees; policymakers manage healthcare to win the hearts and minds of local nationals; and scientists develop neuro-technologies or nanosurgery to create super soldiers.
When the fighting ends, intractable moral dilemmas rebound. Post-war justice demands enormous investments of time, resources and personnel. But losing interest and no longer zealous, war-weary nations forget their duties to rebuild ravaged countries abroad and rehabilitate their war-torn veterans at home.
Addressing these incendiary issues, Military Medical Ethics in Contemporary Armed Conflict integrates the ethics of medicine and the ethics of war. Medical ethics in times of war is not identical to medical ethics in times of peace, but a unique discipline. Without war, there is no military medicine, and without just war there is no military medical ethics. Military Medical Ethics in Contemporary Armed Conflict revises, defends, and rebuts wartime medical practices, just as it lays the moral foundation for casualty care in future conflicts.
Additional text
Michael L. Gross has developed the most comprehensive framework for the analysis of bioethics issues in the military setting. This book, taking into account the changing nature of armed conflict in the 21st century, will be the authoritative reference point for many years to come.
