Originally published in 1999 this classic textbook includes twentysix cases with commentary and bibliographic resources designed especially for medical students and the training of ethics consultants. The majority of the cases reflect the daytoday moral struggles within the walls of hospitals. As a result the cases do not focus on esoteric hightech dilemmas like genetic engineering or experimental protocols but rather on fundamental problems that are pervasive in basic healthcare delivery in the United States where to send a frail elderly patient who refuses to go to a nursing home what role the family should play in making a treatment decision what a hospital should do when it is getting stuck with too many unpaid bills.