This book is written for all those who are interested in exploring whether and how Christian ethics might be able to make a significant contribution to health care ethics today in the public forum of a Western, pluralistic society.

A generation ago such exploration might have been considered largely unnecessary. Many of the pioneers of modern health care ethics were hospital chaplains, church leaders or academic theologians. In the 1960s the American theologian Paul Ramsey, and later William F. May, anticipated many of the issues that have now become commonplace in health care ethics. In Britain Bob Lambourne and his successors at Birmingham, followed by Gordon Dunstan at London, were instrumental in nurturing an interest in ethical and pastoral issues in medicine. In addition, a number of experienced hospital chaplains, such as Norman Autton at St George's Hospital, London, and church leaders, such as John Habgood and Ted Shotter, were also key pioneers.

Yet within a generation the discipline – variously termed health care ethics, medical ethics, biomedical ethics, bioethics, or ethics in medicine – has become largely secularised. An important factor here is that secular philosophers and academic lawyers – such as Ian Kennedy in London, John Harris in Manchester, Sheila McLean in Glasgow and Peter Singer, first in Australia and now in the United States – are now leading voices in health care ethics. They offer distinctive legal and philosophical skills that bring new clarity to the developing discipline.