Behavioral Economics and Bioethics

This book takes readers on a journey through the wide universe of bioethics, raising the following question: what is the proper attitude towards health, life, and death from the perspective of contemporary behavioral economics? Drawing on fields as diverse as economics, ethics, ecology, biology, and philosophy, this book seeks to uncover the bioethics we accomplish, not the moral principles that we advocate. This book covers life-and-death issues arranged around five themes: selves, persons, populations, species, and Future Earth. Ultimately, the author illustrates two kinds of justice: static and dynamic. Static justice prevails whenever parties are free to bargain with each other, while dynamic justice follows from parties' interactions over time. An examination into these types of justice reveals one particularly striking phenomenon: attempts by others to tip the balance of justice have a tendency to backfire. Of primary interest to behavioral economists, this book will also appeal to scholars studying bioethics, ecology, medicine, and philosophy, as well as all people dealing with issues of health, dying, and death.

Examines questions in bioethics from a contemporary behavioral economics perspective Draws on disciplines as wide-ranging as economics, ethics, ecology, medicine, and philosophy Lays out a framework for two types of justice in the bioethics sphere, static and dynamic

Autorentext

Li Way Lee is a Professor in the Department of Economics at Wayne State University, USA. He is also a member of the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. The Patient Who Changes His Mind.- 3. The Two Selves in My Friend Addict.- 4. The Oregon Paradox.- 5. The Two-Headed Physician.- 6. The Governance of Death.- 7. The Public Health Roulettes.- 8. The Long Shadow of Caregiving.- 9. International Justice in Elder Care: The Long Run.- 10. The Making of Modern Cruelty.- 11. Two Animal Ethics; Many More Economic Lessons.- 12. Revenges by the CAFO Pigs.- 13. Future Earth: A View from the Rainbow Bridge.