<P>In recent years, bioethicists have worked on government commissions, on ethicscommittees in hospitals and nursing homes, and as bedside consultants. Because ethical knowledge isbased on experience within the field rather than on universal theoretical propositions, it is opento criticism for its lack of theoretical foundation. Once in the clinic, however, ethicists notedthe extent to which medical practice itself combined the certitudes of science with craft forms ofknowledge. In an effort to forge a middle path between pure science and applied medical and ethicalknowledge, bioethicists turned to the work of classical philosophy, especially the theme of apractical wisdom that entails a variable knowledge of particulars.In this book contemporarybioethicists and scholars of ancient philosophy explore the import of classical ethics on suchpressing bioethical concerns as managed care, euthanasia, suicide, and abortion. Although thecontributors write within the limits of their own disciplines, through cross references andcounterarguments they engage in fruitful dialogue.</P>