title: Holding the present and future accountable to the past: history and the maturation of clinical ethics as a field of the humanities.
abstract: Clinical ethics, like bioethics more generally, until recently has tended to focus on the present and future, with little attention to the history of moral thought about health care that preceded bioethics. As a consequence, clinical ethics and bioethics lack maturity as fields of the humanities. The papers in this year's clinical ethics issue of the Journal put contemporary clinical ethics in critical dialogue with the past, making the former accountable to the latter. The six papers in this issue of the Journal are briefly described, with an emphasis on how they contribute to the maturation of clinical ethics as a field of the humanities.
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. mccullou@bcm.tmc.edu
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: McCullough
mesh_terms: D001675:Bioethics; D004989:Ethics; D040861:Ethics, Business; D026690:Ethics, Clinical; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005820:Genetic Testing; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006809:Humanities; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012941:Social Responsibility