information relevant to each issue and the boxed summaries of key legal cases are particularly helpful. However, the CD-ROM is difficult to navigate as it contains the index of the original book, and the page numbers listed here bear little resemblance to those of the electronic text. There is a search function, but this is painfully slow. Medical Ethics Today has a dual purpose: to


equip readers with both skills in ethical reasoning and an understanding of the law and professional guidance. It perhaps succeeds with the latter, but it’s difficult to see how it enables readers to formulate their own conclusions particularly when, like many ethics texts, it seeks to satisfy everybody by only appealing to mid-level principles such as autonomy. The authors mainly outline the BMA’s position, at the expense of other viewpoints, and there is a worrying tendency to sweeping statements about the views of ‘society as a whole’. The book doesn’t provide any easy answers,


and a lot of it sits uncomfortably with a biblical bioethic. However it does represent a useful reference work about the state of medical ethics and law in the UK today.


Helen Barratt is a final year medical student at Imperial College, London


A Biblical View of Law and Justice


David McIlroy Paternoster 2004 £17.99 Pb 238 pp ISBN 1 84227 267 5


Christian doctors often


rage at the laws which set the ethical pace of their profession. This book is


an important inquiry into the legitimacy of that rage, and a lexicon of the words in which the rage can properly be articulated. The Bible is full of laws. They sometimes


seem to be at war with grace. McIlroy helps to broker a peace. God seems to like order: his first recorded act was to subdue chaos. Although the Fall twisted things so that the originally ordained model of societal harmony has never been visible, he continued to want humans to live in a regulated way with one another and with himself. Laws for an Israelite theocracy are one thing; laws for a Kingdom which is not of this world are another. There is


an apparent dissonance between what the Old and the New Testament say about the demands of the law in a civilized society. All this is the stuff of McIlroy’s book. It is immaculately researched and highly readable. It is important reading not only for jaded lawyers, but also for anyone who takes the obligations of citizenship seriously. I have some quibbles. Most of them boil


down to saying that the book is too short. That necessarily means that mere assertion triumphs over argument. Sometimes, though, the unargued assertions become central pillars of later arguments, and those later arguments are unstable as a result. It is frustrating, too, that McIlroy does not grapple head on with some of the urgent contemporary questions which his thesis raises. Yes, we should, within limits, submit to rulers, but who, in a Britain whose policies are dictated to a significant extent by the US and the EU, is my ruler? The dissolution of the boundaries of nation states makes dubious the application of theologies designed for nation states. It would have been exciting, too, to see an able intellectual matador like McIlroy take firmly by the horns some of the dangerous historical bulls which stampede through any Christian philosophy of law. Theocracies have historically been vile: secular states have generally done a good deal better. I think I know what McIlroy would say about this, but I would have liked to hear him say it. But this is unfair. It is criticising a book for


not being the book that it does not purport to be. McIlroy has produced a fine work of biblical scholarship. It is a compliment to him that I want him to develop and apply his thesis further.


Charles Foster is a Barrister in London Informing Choice


New approaches and ethics for sex and relationships education in Scotland


Philip Boydell and Calum MacKellar Scottish Council on Human Bioethics 2004 £15.00 88 pp ISBN 0 95468 300 5 www.schb.org.uk for full contents


This is a highly useful resource for anyone interested in sex education, whether or not


they are working in Scotland. Within its mere 88 pages of densely packed text, it covers a wide range of topics. Consisting of two parts, the first summarises


the sexual health scene in Scotland and then looks at the biological, psychological and social factors influencing the initiation of teenage sexual activity. The social factors examined include family systems, peer pressure, the media and socio-economics. There then follows a fascinating comparison and contrast of sex education in the Netherlands, USA and Uganda, applying lessons from successes in these countries to future policy in Scotland. The second half of the book considers the


often neglected area of the ethics of sex education, firstly using the well-known ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non- maleficence and best interests and then looking at the effect of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 19 recommendations to the Scottish Executive (the Scottish parliament) conclude the book. I have no doubt that if even half of these were adopted, sexual health in Scotland would be transformed for the better. The recommendations include giving information on the effectiveness of condoms in preventing STIs; giving information on sex within the context of love and relationships; promotion of programmes that encourage young people to have educational goals; promotion of communication between parents and children regarding sex and relationships; promotion of delay and abstinence until a young person is older and more able to make informed decisions. There are a few little irritations which


betray the ‘in-house’ nature of this publication. Testosterone is given a capital ‘T’ in mid-sentence and there are some printing failures in the bar charts. The high price probably reflects the production costs (the shiny paper feels expensive) and limited expected circulation. It is a great pity that this well-researched and helpful book which must have taken months of work to put together, has had so little marketing. Though published in February 2004, I had not heard of it until my review copy arrived in December 2004! It is a real goldmine of useful information however with nine pages of references and is well worth ordering even in 2005. I hope the Scottish Executive have all had copies.


Trevor Stammers is a General Practitioner in West London


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