The Law and Ethics of Medical Research: International Bioethics and Human Rights

by Plomer; Aurora

• ISBN13: 9781859416877
• ISBN10: 185941687X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2005-02-02
• Publisher: Cavendish Pub Ltd

Summary

The growing globalisation of medical research and the application of new biotechnologies in morally contested areas has forced a revision of international ethical guidelines. This book examines the controversies surrounding biomedical research in the 21st century from a human rights perspective, analysing the evolution and changes in form and content of international instruments regulating the conduct of biomedical research. The approach adopted is comparative and includes an evaluation of human rights and UK and US law on embryonic stem cell research, the HIV/AIDS trials in the developing world, the Alder Hey Inquiry and the human radiation and nerve gas experiments on human subjects in the US and the UK. This is the first book to analyse some of the major issues in biomedical research today from an international, comparative human rights perspective.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Table of Cases	xi
Introduction	xv
1 FROM BIOETHICS TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN BIOMEDICINE	1	(22)
1.1 The origins of international bioethics	1	(6)
1.2 The growth of bioethics and 'principle' driven regulation	7	(7)
1.3 Ethical v legal regulation	14	(2)
1.4 The importance of human rights	16	(7)
2 HUMAN RIGHTS AND UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES	23	(20)
2.1 Ethical divides: the background to the Convention	24	(2)
2.2 Before the Convention: Helsinki	26	(3)
2.3 US human radiation experiments: the ACHRE report	29	(3)
2.4 A morally bankrupt framework?	32	(5)
2.5 The Convention on Human Rights & Biomedicine (CHRB)	37	(3)
2.6 Individual v social benefit	40	(1)
2.7 Convergence on fundamental and universal values?	41	(2)
3 NON-THERAPEUTIC RESEARCH: DOMESTIC REMEDIES AND CONVENTION RIGHTS	43	(24)
3.1 The centrality of consent in human rights instruments	43	(2)
3.2 The UK Porton Down experiments	45	(1)
3.3 Definitions of medical research	46	(3)
3.4 Civil remedies in English law	49	(6)
3.5 Canada and the US	55	(3)
3.6 Autonomy and bodily integrity as constitutionally protected fundamental rights	58	(2)
3.7 Convention rights	60	(1)
3.8 Article 3	60	(2)
3.9 Article 8	62	(1)
3.10 Limitations: national security	63	(4)
4 EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH: HUMAN DIGNITY AND THE RIGHT TO LIFE	67	(26)
4.1 Moral perspectives on human dignity	68	(3)
4.2 Legal concepts of human dignity and the right to life	71	(1)
4.3 Human dignity in international human rights instruments	72	(2)
4.4 Human dignity in the new human rights instruments in biomedicine	74	(4)
4.5 The right to life under the ECHR	78	(4)
4.6 The embryo's right to life in Constitutional courts in Europe	82	(2)
4.7 Policy and law in the US	84	(7)
4.8 Points of convergence	91	(2)
5 THE RIGHTS OF THE DEAD: RESEARCH ON HUMAN TISSUE AND BODY PARTS AFTER BRISTOL AND ALDER HEY	93	(20)
5.1 The meaning of human corpses	94	(1)
5.2 Moral perspectives	94	(5)
5.3 English common law	99	(3)
5.4 Models for reform	102	(3)
5.5 A human rights perspective	105	(6)
5.6 Balancing individual v societal interests	111	(2)
6 RESEARCH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: NEW ETHICS AND NEW THREATS TO HUMAN RIGHTS	113	(24)
6.1 Introduction	113	(1)
6.2 The ethics of AZT trials: ethical imperialism and ethical conflict	114	(3)
6.3 Controversy over Helsinki standards	117	(4)
6.4 The international drift away from Helsinki	121	(1)
6.5 'Effective' v 'best "current"' treatment	121	(3)
6.6 Who benefits? Individual v society	124	(2)
6.7 Controlling abuse	126	(2)
6.8 The Convention on Human Rights & Biomedicine (CHRB)	128	(6)
6.9 The future of human rights in biomedical research	134	(1)
6.10 Deficiencies in European human rights law	134	(1)
6.11 Procedural limits	135	(1)
6.12 Towards transnational justice	135	(2)
Bibliography	137	(10)
Index	147