Reviews for The Textbook of Pharmaceutical Medicine

The average rating for The Textbook of Pharmaceutical Medicine based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-04-17 00:00:00 David Sorensen The selling point for Boonin's A Defense of Abotion is that it is the best available book on the subject of abortion. I suspect this is true, and it was absolutely true at the time that the book was published. The book is designed to be a strong overview of the subject of abortion for those with a little bit of general ethics training, and on this point I think it succeeds. I do have a number of problems with the book that I will outline below, because I think that they're important to mention. I don't want that to detract from those who would read the book, though, because i think that the target audience for the book would really get a lot out of it. Sections one and two of the book are, I think, generally pretty strong. I don't agree with a lot of them, but a part of that is because Boonin is on a mission to engage those critical of abortion on their own terms. The result is that he makes a lot of assumptions that are kind of tenuous to me, and I don't think are consistent with the best philosophy, even at the time the book was published. But the book definitely succeeds in its polemical goals by extending to the anti-abortion position. The discussion of developmental biology in Chapter 3 is really painfully outdated; while that's to be expected for a book that is almost 15 years old, the material was actually about 10 years out of date when Boonin published the book. The bulk of the citations in the chapter are from (at the most recent) the early 90s, and this draws a lot of skepticism. I don't know that the average undergraduate will pick up on this and draw concern about it, but it is really troubling, from an academic standpoint. The discussion of "responsibility" objections in Chapter 4 was pretty troubling, as well. I don't think that this is Boonin's fault, because he embraces an approach to understanding consent and responsibility that are accessible for his undergraduate students. However, the theories of consent that are offered are actually really, really bad; alternative theories of consent would make the case for the moral permissibility of abortion a lot easier (not necessarily Boonin's goal, of course) but also make the book more rigorous. I did find the weakness of these accounts of consent at least deserving of a comment. Boonin winds up on the right side of the discussion, but I find the silence on these theories really troubling. Overall, it is a good book for people who want an introduction to a number of the arguments around the issue of abortion. I hope that it is a good resource for those in the discussion, because it does a much better job than many of the other things that people read around this issue. I think that it would be worthwhile for Boonin, or someone else, to publish something in a similar style with updated arguments and information, but much of Boonin's writing is still very useful even a decade older. My misgivings about the book are largely those of an academic who wanted more, and those are good misgivings to have as an author.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-10-29 00:00:00 Ryan Harris I'm staunchly pro-life. Even given that, it was a joy to read this book. This is hands-down the best defense of abortion currently available. If you wish to keep up-to-date on the abortion issue, and know what the best arguments in support of the pro-choice side are, this would be the book to read. It is a little bit of heavy reading but he thoroughly examines just about every pro-life argument that's worth mentioning in this book. I think ultimately his case fails, but I think he does make many valid points in the book.