“...Wildes is to be commended for his insistence that procedural ethics is ‘thicker’ than many of its proponents and critics suggest...” —Second Opinion “Wildes (Georgetown Univ.) offers a concise, topical book concerning the paradigms involved in bioethics methodology. He takes the unique perspective that there are many methodological issues in bioethics but we can come to understand how we are all bound together as acquaintances in a similar process. The first part of the book deals with the emergence, early processes, and moral paradigms that have been used in the past. The reader will become familiar with how these differences can actually work for the benefit of all when analyzing and rectifying moral dilemmas in bioethics. The second part elaborates on how moral communities are shaped and how agreement on moral differences can lead to procedures for resolving bioethical problems. Wildes clearly seeks to inform the reader of how bioethics can proceed into the future. The book could function as a required resource in a graduate school seminar on bioethics. Graduate students and up.” —Choice “His consistent focus throughout this carefully argued book is on how we conceive and define controversies in bioethics and how we seek a moral course of action. This volume is a worthy addition to college libraries and can be used fruitfully in conjuction with one or more books of readings for a bioethics course. The approach Wildes suggests may have wider application beyond bioethics in areas such as creation/evolution, ecclesiology, and eschatology where Christians disagree with one another.” —Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith “I found the Wildes book helpful in... attempting to develop ethical methodology.... The summaries and conclusion are clear and excellent.” —National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly “Wildes’s desire to rethink the direction of bioethics for a new century by moving away from theory to praxis is to be commended and should be studied by all serious scholars and practitioners in this field.” —Philosophy in Review “Wildes’s explanation of bioethical proceduralism positions it as a means to implement moral understanding in a pluralistic society and to identify shared moral commitments despite different justifications and moral foundations.... The trek from the reality of moral pluralism to the possibility of justifiable moral proceduralism is difficult at best, but Wildes succeeds in providing an imaginable context from which to proceed.” —Journal of the American Academy of Religion “We should... welcome any book that offers to bring at least some order to this battlefield. Kevin Wm. Wildes proposes to do just that.” —Medical Humanities Review “...an important corrective to standard theories of bioethics.”
Religious Studies Review “...[H]e has done a valuable service in bringing rigorous attention to questions of method. His book should be required reading for graduate courses in bioethics.” —Theological Studies