Government agencies and commissions, courts, and legislatures have during the past several decades produced reports, rendered decisions, and passed laws that have both defined the fundamental issues in the field of bioethics and established ways of managing them in our society. Providing a history of these key bioethical decisions, this is the first and only comprehensive collection of the critical public documents in biomedical ethics, including many hard-to-find or out-of-print materials. This historical volume will be a standard text for courses in bioethics, health policy, and death and dying; and a primary reference for anyone interested in this increasingly relevant field.