ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with medicine and philosophy have been at different points on parallel tracks for some time, at least as far as jobs and prestige. The proliferation of undergraduate courses in biomedical ethics is a commonplace, as philosophers scramble to upgrade their own background and maintain currency about the issues, so that they may aptly respond to the need for good teachers in this area. Medical journals have clearly increased their coverage of topics in ethics, publishing articles by philosophers, some of which have been quite influential. One sign of the coming of age of biomedical ethics is the development of literature addressing the theoretical basis of medicine, e.g. Thomasma and Pellegrino, A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice, and the foundations of medical ethics as distinct from other fields of applied ethics, e.g. Veatch, A Theory of Medical Ethics.
