NSHEN has developed the Bioethics Book Club as a resource for ethics committees, organizations and healthcare teams looking for a fun, creative, interactive way to facilitate discussion about health ethics issues and engage in ethics education.

We will select a variety of books with health ethics themes – both fiction and non-fiction – and develop a handout for each that includes a summary, some of the ethics issues addressed in the book and discussion questions.

Your group will select the book that is most relevant or of interest to you, give your group members time to read the book, and then use the discussion questions as a guide to facilitate a group discussion around the health ethics issues within each book and how they relate to your practice.

Some of these books are available in the NSHEN Lending Library and most are available through Nova Scotia’s public libraries.

Continue to check back often! Also, if you know of a book not on our list that would be a good fit for Bioethics Book Club, please let us know!

  • New Book Summary with Discussion Questions

    March 2025

    More or Less Maddy

    Summary

    Maddy Banks has just finished her first year at university. She’s had a difficult year, and been depressed, but during the summer Maddy’s mood changes significantly. She can’t sleep at night, and she acts in ways that are unusual for her. At first, Maddy’s mood changes go unnoticed by others, but during a family dinner Maddy behaves in a way that put herself and others in danger. She is admitted to the hospital, where she is diagnosed with and treated for bi-polar disorder.
    Maddy struggles with the diagnosis and how it impacts her life and her relationship with family and friends. and the challenges it poses to her pursue of a career as a stand-up comedian. Gradually, however, she starts to find her ‘new’ normal.

    More or Less Maddy by Lisa Genova Discussion GuideDownload

Past Summaries

  • The Brill Pill

    In the not-so-distant future, the highly ambitious scientist, William Dalal, is working on improving lives of people using brain regeneration. However, personal tragedy and a rivalry between Will and another View Summary

  • The Mad Women’s Ball

    Genevieve is a senior nurse. After the childhood death of her sister Blandine, she shunned religion and placed her faith in both the celebrated psychiatrist Dr. Charcot and science. But View Summary

Past Summaries (PDF)

(These older summaries are available in PDF format to view or download)