Ethics for Everyone: A Skills-Based Approach, Paperback

Most of us desire to be moral people, but too often we struggle to translate philosophical concepts about morality and ethics to everyday life. One way we can bridge this gap is by approaching ethics as skills that we can develop rather than a set of ideas we must grasp. Taking this practical approach, and writing especially for medicine, law, and business students trying to understand ethics in the real world Larry R. Churchill examines morality in the context of human experience. His book builds readers' understanding of ethics from the raw materials of moral life: the curiosity we feel when confronted with moral differences, the perplexities of practical life, and the satisfactions of moral growth.

The book orients ethics around the skills that are needed for sound ethical reflection and deliberation, acknowledging that ethical issues change as we change, and their concerns extend over a lifespan. To Churchill, learning and honing these personal and relational skills is the fundamental work of ethics and the foundation for judicious use of more theoretical approaches.

A succinct and compassionate guide to ethical living, this book draws from literature, as well as philosophical and religious writings. It encompasses both popular and underemphasized concepts, and demonstrates their centrality to ethics. Exercises and case studies reinforce the practical skills it teaches. Ethics for Everyone shows the wide range of skills and human capacities that make the field of ethics true to human experience. It is a book to be read and then re-read at life's major junctures.

Larry R. Churchill is Professor of Medical Ethics Emeritus, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and author of What Patients Teach and Healers, both with Oxford University Press. From 2002 to 2017 Dr. Churchill was the Ann Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics at Vanderbilt. He played a major role in developing the medical ethics program at Vanderbilt, and prior to that at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was Chair of the Department of Social Medicine. Dr. Churchill is a member of National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of The Hastings Center. He has published widely on medical ethics, end-of-life care, justice in health care, and human subjects research. His work has been featured in USA Today, Bill Moyers Journal, and the Alex Gibney documentary Money-Driven Medicine, among others.