Family Values and the New Society

Beset by socio-legal challenges, medical, and scientific advances in reproduction, feminist philosophies and complex questions regarding its contemporary relevance, the family—together with the core values that have sustained over the years—is being tested, re-evaluated, and redesigned. This book directs its focus to the current national debate on family values providing a strong and practical framework for decisionmaking in topical problem areas which integrate the social sciences, law, medicine, political science, economics, ethics, philosophy, and religion.

This book analyzes both from a practical and scholastic perspective, nine areas of central focus or challenge to mainstream notions of the family. Feminist perspectives on reproductive rights and responsibilities, domestic partnerships and same-sex relationships, and new assisted reproductive technologies (such as organ harvesting and child abuse) are just some of the issues discussed as they relate to individuals and to the family and the values that have been the backbone of American life. The author suggests an ethical ordering that balances traditional strengths of American life with accomodation for new normative standards.

GEORGE P. SMITH II is Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He is both nationally and internationally known as a lecturer and is a widely published and recognized legal scholar in the field of law, science, and medicine. He is the author of many books, including Bioethics and the Law (1993) and Legal and Healthcare Ethics for the Elderly (1996).