One of the cherished myths of medical ethics is that technological progress, by producing situations which are historically or ethically unprecedented, has destroyed the moral consensus on which traditional medicine has been based. The problem with this myth is that it overlooks the intense and incessant controversies that have characterized medicine for more than two millennia.
Michael Jerome Carella has traced contemporary sciences, ethics, and medicine back to their ancient Greek origins. In doing so, he has provided the context essential for understanding the particular manner in which science, ethics, and technology have come together to create the ethical dilemmas of contemporary medicine.