"If lifeboat ethics sinks, will bioethics drown? In Thieves of Virtue, Tom Koch incisively exposes the myths and mystifications fostered by bioethics, unpacking not only the philosophical inconsistencies but equally the critical externalities -- both theoretical and factual -- that are conveniently masked and bracketed by the discipline. He convincingly demonstrates that bioethics crafted a mythos of scarcity, covertly allying itself with neoliberal economics, at the expense of the moral core of medicine and well-being of persons and patients, especially those with disabilities. This book provides an important new account of bioethics for serious scholars as well as for students new to the field."--M. Therese Lysaught, Department of Theology, Marquette University "In Thieves of Virtue Tom Koch compares the 2,500-year-old Hippocratic Oath with the medical ethics proposed to replace it by contemporary bioethicists. It's not just that he finds the new ethics wanting: Koch makes it clear that it is ethics at all in only the narrowest, most technical sense. His painstaking, case-by-notorious-case critique is devastating. His dispassion may not allow him to say it, but I can: as currently advocated, bioethics is simply unethical."--Denis Wood, author of Everything Sings "An original, well-researched, and provocative book. Thieves of Virtue offers a fundamental and probing critique of the core premises undergirding contemporary bioethical theory in its several forms. Tom Koch's investigation suggests that the roots of bioethics are deeply problematic, and require thorough reassessment."--Walter Wright, Professor of Philosophy, Clark University
