After Dinner Conversation - Bioethics

Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Fiction

By: Henry McFarland, Jared Cappel, Kelly Piner, Rebecca Christophi, CJ Erick, Sierra Simopoulos, C.S. Griffel, Peri Dwyer Worrell, A. Katherine Black

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Ranked Top 10 "Best Lit Mags of 2023" by Chill Subs

Synopsis: Carefully curated stories from our monthly magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics of bioethics. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions.

• Sacrificing Mercy: A devout Christian refuses a heart transplant based on her religious convictions.
• The Human Experience: A married couple negotiates the genetic future of their unborn child.
• Euthanasia: In a dystopian future, Hank works on a farm for the euthanizing of sick, unwanted, or abandoned animals.
• In Defense Of The Harvest: The first recipient does his best to explain the situation that created the law for harvesting prisoner organs.
• Two-Percenters: A new treatment may allow 98% of the people to be genetically enhanced, but at the expense of the 2% who already are.
• The Decay: Benjamin's pharmacy suggests he consider enrolling in a government program to end his life.
• Visions of Midwives: A midwife in training learns the midwife secret, that at the moment of birth each midwife is able to see the future of the newly born child.
• On Good Authority: A doctor with a new vaccine for the "zombie virus" takes it to the next town and discovers two startling revelations.
• Step Back: A husband and wife decide to have a natural childbirth and find it's more than they bargained.
• All Harriet's Pieces: A young girl faces the death of her mother and the loss of her closest companion.

Reviews ★★★★★
“With Science fiction we can explore other galaxies and alien conflicts, but with philosophical fiction we can explore other minds and ethical conflicts. Let this book take you on a Phi-Fi adventure.”
— William Irwin, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, King's College

“After Dinner Conversation has taken up the initiative to write themed collections of short stories that fit focused ethics courses – say, a course on bioethics, AI ethics, Tech ethics etc. These collections can offer a spine for such courses or individual stories could be added to a course as illustrative material to stimulate discussion. The stories are lively and engaging and followed by a set of questions to start classroom discussion. Also, outside of educational contexts, the stories will work nicely to stimulate conversation in families, elder hostels, youth clubs, or book groups.”
— Luc Bovens, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill