Much has changed during the years in which I have been working on this book. For one thing, disability is no longer a shadow issue in bioethics. When I first started my work, I rarely heard the phrase “disability perspective” in discussions with bioethicists. A three-day conference might include a single sparsely attended session on disability issues. Disability is now part of the conversation. More and more often, articles by disability experts appear in bioethics journals and texts. In the past year alone, I have participated in several national bioethics conferences devoted exclusively to disability issues. These developments give me hope that the field is ripe for change. Nonetheless, the transformative change I'd like to see – a movement toward a bioethics that incorporates disability as a central issue and engages disability experts in the enterprise – will take more than a series of conferences and articles. The real work will take place on the ground floor – in medical education, in hospitals, in the courtroom, in law schools, in government – wherever the work of bioethics is done. This book is my contribution to that work.

In the end, this is a book about collaboration, which is especially fitting given the teamwork that went into its creation. Although the mistakes and omissions are mine alone, I share credit for the worthwhile sections with many people.