Cutting to the Core: Exploring the Ethics of Contested Surgeries

“ Cutting to the Core shows us how we need to think about some of the most disturbing forms of surgical intervention-interventions which are fervently desired by individuals, but which may do more harm than good. This compelling and highly accessible collection of essays establishes once and for all the importance of ethics for understanding the implications of medical practice.” ―Kathy Davis, author of Dubious Equalities and Embodied Differences: Cultural Studies on Cosmetic Surgery

“Several contributions stand out as exceptionally novel and insightful.” ―The New England Journal Of Medicine

“Prospective surgeons, along with other health professionals and the public, should read this book.” ―Choice Reviews

“Although the book was written primarily with surgeons in mind and is ideally suited to help them reflect on their own practices, its accessibility and openness to the contradictory realities of embodiment invite us all to think more critically about what we expect surgery to do for us and what the surgical elimination of embodied differences would mean for our sense of who we are, our interactions with one another, and the quality of our social lives.” ―Hastings Center Report

“Cutting to the Core is an interesting and enlightening book…I regard the book as a valuable addition to my bioethics library.” ―Andrew Brei, St. Mary’s University, Metapsychology Online

“We can remake ourselves. Or can we? This is the definitive collection of what happens when our and our children’s identity goes under the knife.” ―Glenn McGee, Director, Alden March Bioethics Institute

Stephen Coleman is Priest-in-Charge of the Grosvenor Chapel, Mayfair, and Assistant Director of the Centre for Law and Religion, The School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, UK.