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Arthur L. Caplan

Arthur Caplan is Director and Trustee Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. In 2008 he was named to Discover Magazine's "Smartest People on the Planet" list.

Titles by This Editor

Ethics and the Metaphysics of Medicine

Reflections on Health and Beneficence
By Kenneth A. Richman
Edited by Arthur L. Caplan and Glenn McGee

Definitions of health and disease are of more than theoretical interest. Understanding what it means to be healthy has implications for choices in medical treatment, for ethically sound informed consent, and for accurate assessment of policies or programs. This deeper understanding can help us create more effective public policy for health and medicine. It is notable that such contentious legal initiatives as the Americans with Disability Act and the Patients' Bill of Rights fail to define adequately the medical terms on which their effectiveness depends.