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

    In Our Likeness: A Novel

    Graham has a crush on his work colleague, Nessie. They work in a start-up tech company. One day Nessie approached Graham, asking him to test out a new algorithm she’s developed to detect lies on the internet. Graham agrees to test it. He edits in Nessie’s online profile information with a view to test if the program can detect the lies, he’s made up. Soon he discovers that the algorithm is extremely powerful and capable of much more than what it was initially developed for.

    Ethical Issues:                                                                       

    • Artificial Intelligence 
    • ‘Playing God’
    • Authenticity/reality                                                                
    • Technology and human nature                                                                                                                                                          

    Discussion questions:

    • What are your biggest concerns about AI and why?
    • How does the book reflect discussions in the media about AI?[1]
    • What questions and/or concerns does the book raise about authenticity/reality?
    • Who should decide what AI should be used for? why
    • What do you think is good use of AI?
    • Discuss the relationship between human nature and technology?[i] What are the warnings reflected in the book?
    • Are the characters in the book ‘playing god’ by creating and/or using the algorithm?

    [1] This question is adapted from the author’s discussion guide: https://www.bryanvandyke.com/book-clubs

     

    VanDyke__Bryan_inourlikenessDownload

Past Summaries

  • 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 View Summary

  • 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)