Handbook on Critical Life Issues, 4th Edition
Handbook on Critical Life Issues, 4th Edition
by Arland K. Nichols
ISBN: 978-0-935372-76-2
Size: 6” x 9”
xvi + 408 pages.
Publication: March 2024
Handbook on Critical Life Issues is a comprehensive textbook evaluating major life issues and health care ethics from the standpoint of the teaching of the Catholic Church. It is meant in a special way for use in university courses and adult religious education. This classic work on Catholic bioethics began with texts compiled by Rev. Donald McCarthy and Rev. Edward Bayer in 1982 and was revised twice by the Marianist Rev. John Leies, most recently in 2010. This fourth edition, by Arland Nichols, substantially reorganizes and greatly expands upon the previous editions.
The Handbook is divided into three parts. The first part discusses fundamental principles and foundations, including reliance upon faith, reason, and Scripture; freedom, conscience, and the human act; and the human person, suffering, and compassion. The second part looks at issues around the beginning of human life, including contraception, artificial reproductive practices and natural fertility treatments, the moment when human life begins, abortion, and experimentation on human embryos. The third part completes the presentation by looking at moral issues in the midst of life and at its end, such as preventative and risk-reducing medicine, organ donation, advanced directives, decisions about preserving life, and the determination of death. Two appendices cover a legal history of the withdrawal of treatment and capital punishment.
For more than four decades, the Handbook on Critical Life Issues has been an indispensable sourcebook and guide for those seeking to apply the truths of Revelation and the natural law to vexing questions of biomedical ethics. Nichols brings to these pages particular expertise in Pope St. John Paul II's efforts to promote human dignity, premised on a deeply Christological understanding of human anthropology.
— George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Since the time I was a medical student, I have owned an edition of Critical Life Issues, and found it incredibly important as both a reference and a teaching resource. Arland Nichols, in this 4th edition, has indelibly stamped an NCBC “classic” with his own superb writing, thorough research, seamless integration of philosophical, theological, and clinical concepts, and forward-thinking analysis of the essential bioethical issues facing Catholics today.
— Ashley K. Fernandes, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director The Center for Bioethics at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center