Henry McFarland

This is a collection of short stories focusing on problems regarding bioethics, with accompanying discussion questions. In my opinion, the stories are all excellent and of very high quality. The topics include euthanasia, designer babies and growing spare organs.

I found the two stories dealing with the fate of the sick and elderly the most moving, ”The Decay” in particular. Perhaps society in the future would come to the conclusion that it would be best if these unproductive people just died. But would that be humane? The story about vaccination during a zombie epidemic, ”On Good Authority”, was the most exciting, and I would have liked to read more about the future world described.

A few stories deal with more than one ethical dilemma. Perhaps it would have been better to focus on just one. In ”Step Back”, the two problems are both related to choosing the natural over the artificial, and I think that works well. In ”On Good Authority”, the problems are on the one hand vaccination and on the other sterilization. To me as a reader, having both these issues in the same story is a bit confusing.

One question mark is for whom the discussion questions after each short story are intended. An after dinner conversation between friends, as the title implies? College students, professionals, and book clubs are mentioned in the book. I think also high school teachers could use them with adaptation to their particular student group. I suppose the average reader will browse through the questions but enjoy the short stories.
… (mehr)

This is an excellent compilation of fictional short stories accompanied by discussion questions. The stories tackle important topics in bioethics, many of which most of us would rather not consider, but which are important in shaping our views of current ethical issues. The stories typically help the reader suspend disbelief enough to engage in the issues as potentially real issues. This would be a great book to use in bioethics discussion groups, whether in a professional or academic setting.

I received a free electronic copy of this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for my honest review.… (mehr)