This edited collection presents 13 chapters addressing a range of moral and philosophical debates concerning disability. As such, it adds to a rapidly expanding body of knowledge within the field of critical disability studies. It is important to set the book into context, as the chapters all arise from papers contributed to a single collaborative UK–USA seminar series. The collection is well edited though, with a useful introduction that charts the key themes and commonalities of the different chapters, linking them to key positions in moral and social philosophy.

The recent expansion of published work in the disability studies field has been substantial, not to say exponential, with a considerable number of edited readers and compilations from a variety of perspectives (including activist, sociological, liberal arts and policy focused approaches). However, this book is distinctive in two ways. First, it addresses the problematic of disability from the perspective of moral philosophy. Second, it contains contributions that are not generally from the ‘usual suspects’ in the field, but include both established philosophical scholars and young researchers. This lends the volume both strengths and weaknesses. There are clearly strengths in taking a fresh look at contested concepts and theoretical debates, and it is encouraging to see authors from beyond the immediate discipline engaging with disability debates. Conversely, there are some limitations in some of the chapters in terms of familiarity with the nuances of the established concepts and models. For example, the opening chapter is useful in comparing ‘everyday’ concepts of disability with those of medical and social models. There is, however, a certain lack of reference to the seminal texts of the social model approach, which leads to a partial misunderstanding of this key paradigm. Thus, definitions of social model approaches rely on quotation from critiques of the model rather than its primary exponents. This is echoed in some other parts of the book. The key to this difficulty is a conflation of the work done by social models of disability and the requirements for a more comprehensive theory of the experience of disabled people. The main focus addresses debates that are concerned with the personhood, integrity and experience of disabled people (or, more specifically, people labelled as having impairments). The social model approach, dominant in critical disability studies, addresses only the socially produced dimensions of that experience, while the individual (medical) model addresses only the biologically determinant factors. The idealisation of some key positions in the literature is not fatal to the logic of the argument, but it does lead some of the authors to develop a critique based on ‘paper tigers’.

The key concepts and arguments employed in the chapters are, however, very helpful in positioning disability and impairment within the mainstream of moral and social philosophy. They offer useful groundwork in linking current disability debates with key historic traditions of Western philosophical thought. The book thus offers a helpful resource to students and teachers of philosophical argument who would like to include disability debates. It will also be of interest to those within critical disability studies who would like to connect specific conceptual debates with generic philosophical approaches. The book would, for example, be of interest to students and teachers addressing the question of ‘what is disability?’. However, it would be useful to read the chapters in the context of other established works within the disability studies field. In this sense, the book would be more likely to provide an extension to thinking about disability concepts than a definitive introduction to those concepts (and this is not its stated intention).

The book contains a number of useful examples, including ‘real life’ moral dilemmas and controversial cases in medical ethics. These would provide an excellent stimulus for critical reflection and debate in exploring related issues such as the nature of personhood, the value of lives, equity, social justice, or the fundamental problematic of normality–diversity. These fundamental debates are of enormous importance to the discussion of disability, but have not been often contested in the social science literature, being more often asserted as premises for social intervention and policy responses. The contributions in this book are, therefore, thought provoking for those engaged in more substantive debates. It is worth noting, however, that the examples used for illustration are primarily concerned with individual cases or with types and categories of impairment than with policy concerns directly.

There are certainly policy implications in several of the chapters, for example suggesting implications for advocacy or the rationing of scarce health and welfare resources. However, the emphasis is on the construction and manipulation of philosophical argument rather than on policy per se. From a social policy perspective, some of the chapters might be complimented or strengthened by further reference to examples of policy discourse. For example, there was only one reference to the Americans with Disabilities Act and one to the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning. For a book published in 2009, it was also surprising to see no direct reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (now a key reference point). For scholars of social and public policy, making connections between policy definitions and philosophical concepts of disability would provide a useful inroad to many of the moral debates discussed.

Readers who are intimately familiar with the critical disability studies literature may find that this book has some limitations, or that it treads an uncertain path between the ‘medical’ and the ‘social’. However, this might also be considered one of its strengths. Those with a specific interest in social policy debates may find it necessary to make their own connections between the arguments presented and policy debates, but such connections could easily be found. Overall, this was an interesting and sometimes challenging book that largely succeeded in presenting a very diverse range of arguments around a coherent theme. It makes a contribution to the contemporary literature on disability by confronting a number of difficult issues head on.