American Bioethics Crossing Human Rights and Health Law Boundaries

by Annas, George J.

• ISBN13: 9780195169492
• ISBN10: 0195169492
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Bioethics was "born in the USA" and the values American bioethics embrace are based on American law, including liberty and justice. This book crosses the borders between bioethics and law, but moves beyond the domestic law/bioethics struggles for dominance by exploring attempts to articulateuniversal principles based on international human rights. The isolationism of bioethics in the US is not tenable in the wake of scientific triumphs like decoding the human genome, and civilizational tragedies like international terrorism. Annas argues that by crossing boundaries which haveartificially separated bioethics and health law from the international human rights movement, American bioethics can be reborn as a global force for good, instead of serving mainly the purposes of U.S. academics. This thesis is explored in a variety of international contexts such as terrorism andgenetic engineering, and in U.S. domestic disputes such as patient rights and market medicine. The citizens of the world have created two universal codes: science has sequenced the human genome and the United Nations has produced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The challenge for Americanbioethics is to combine these two great codes in imaginative and constructive ways to make the world a better, and healthier, place to live.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
I BIOETHICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
1. Bioethics and Bioterrorism	3	(16)
2. Human Rights and Health	19	(8)
3. The Man on the Moon	27	(16)
4. The Endangered Human	43	(16)
5. The Right to Health	59	(10)
6. Capital Punishment	69	(12)
II BIOETHICS AND HEALTH LAW
7. Conjoined Twins	81	(14)
8. Patient Rights	95	(10)
9. White Coat Police	105	(16)
10. Partial Birth Abortion	121	(14)
11. The Shadowlands	135	(14)
12. Waste and Longing	149	(10)
Concluding Remarks: Bioethics, Health Law, and Human Rights Boundary Crossings	159	(8)
Appendix A: Universal Declaration of Human Rights	167	(8)
Appendix B: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights	175	(20)
Appendix C: International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights	195	(10)
Appendix D: The Nuremberg Code	205	(2)
Notes	207	(30)
Index	237