John Havard, London, BMJ Publishing Group, 1999, 71 pages, £5.00.

This manual is designed to provide teaching modules on medical ethics for health care professionals in developing countries. The author acknowledges that, although there are common themes, their medical ethical dilemmas are often quite different from those which occur in developed countries and the approach needs to be somewhat less Western in orientation. Emphasis is properly given to topics such as AIDS/HIV and the status of women and children which create special local problems. Although universal principles of medical ethics are affirmed, care is taken to avoid the trap of imposing “our” views and solutions on “their” situations. As a teaching aid the manual is well constructed, starting with the enunciation of general principles, followed by comment and a series …