This volume examines the impact of advances in genetics and assisted reproduction technologies on family law, human rights and the rights of the child, including the effects of international treaties on national legislation. It surveys the theoretical, ethical and legal discussions with regard to biotechnology and family law issues and the search for a balance between safeguarding respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the need to ensure freedom of research. However, biotechnology impinges not only on isolated individuals and their rights, but also on unborn children, the family as a network of living relationships and the basic structure of any society, as well as the foundation of parentage and kinship, social organization as a whole and, finally, mankind itself. As the attention of the World turns to cloning, this book will contribute to the search for a balance between the rights and freedoms of born and yet to be born human beings and the quest for new technologies.
The eight chapters within this volume are structured around an exploration of the fundamental issues in the field of biomedical human rights: dignity and autonomy in not only procreative liberties but throughout the complete cycle of life and death, the freedom of scientific inquiry into the new biotechnological methods of collaborative reproduction, the right to genetic integrity at birth and throughout life, and the equitable right to health or access to health care benefits during life and old age. All these central issues are tested, of necessity, but utilitarian principles which, in turn, force the templates for decision making, evaluate the gravity of harm deriving from a particular human right and its recognition and enforcement measured against the utility of the social, economic, or cultural good accruing from recognition of such a right in the first instance. Ultimately, cultural relativism will be seen - more often than universality - as the determinative point of balance. This volume not only informs the ongoing debate on the role of human rights in biomedicine, but will also provide enlightened responses to the troublesome issues presented in this new age of biotechnology.
Examine the impact and importance reproduction and genetics have on religious values Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine: Empowering Discernment explains the mystery of the God-human relationship so ministers, priests, and pastors can follow the ethics and mechanics of counseling human reproductive health and be informed on issues of religion, medical experimentation, and politics. The unique book is a teaching text and a desktop reference for clergypersons and pastoral care ministers, providing them with information on the sensitive and intimate topic of reproductive health from a Christian worldview so they can advise and empower congregation members to make thoughtful decisions about health care. Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine examines four disciplines through a Christian point of view: 1) religion based on humanity created in the image of God; 2) different varieties of ethics; 3) systems of law and politics; and 4) philosophies on experimental medicines. Each topic is grounded with its religious background, providing a practical, easy-to-follow path for Christian thinkers. The book also addresses the concerns a religious person might have about health and ministry, what genetic therapy can accomplish, the alternatives to genetic therapy, and how theology, ethics, law, and medicine apply to the issues expectant mothers face. Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine examines: the major points in recognized ethical theories how Christian principles became part of secular law over time the legal dilemmas involved in protecting the health of pregnant women how and why palliative care is a viable alternative to modern therapies the politics and morality of terminating a pregnancy how to protect women from becoming research “instruments” the moral status of the embryo and much more Counseling Pregnancy, Politics, and Biomedicine explains God’s desire for good health by identifying ways in which Jesus is the example of what it means for every person to be “created in the image of God.” The book is a vital resource for clergypersons and pastoral care ministers.
The Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, also referred to as the "Oviedo Convention", celebrated the 10th anniversary of its entry into force in 2009. This legally binding instrument aims to protect the integrity, dignity and identity of all human beings and guarantees everyone, without discrimination, the respect for their rights and fundamental freedoms with regard to the application of biology and medicine. It shares with the European Convention on Human Rights the same underlying approach and many ethical principles, and provides a general framework for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in the field of biomedicine. The Oviedo Convention also addresses new challenges in biomedicine that are brought about by technological and scientific developments, making it a reference text for patient rights at the European level. The principles laid down in the Oviedo Convention were further developed and complemented in additional protocols in specific fields: prohibition of cloning of human beings, transplantation of organs and tissues of human origin, and biomedical research and genetic testing for health purposes.
An Anthropology of Biomedicine is an exciting new introduction to biomedicine and its global implications. Focusing on the ways in which the application of biomedical technologies bring about radical changes to societies at large, cultural anthropologist Margaret Lock and her co-author physician and medical anthropologist Vinh-Kim Nguyen develop and integrate the thesis that the human body in health and illness is the elusive product of nature and culture that refuses to be pinned down. Introduces biomedicine from an anthropological perspective, exploring the entanglement of material bodies with history, environment, culture, and politics Develops and integrates an original theory: that the human body in health and illness is not an ontological given but a moveable, malleable entity Makes extensive use of historical and contemporary ethnographic materials around the globe to illustrate the importance of this methodological approach Integrates key new research data with more classical material, covering the management of epidemics, famines, fertility and birth, by military doctors from colonial times on Uses numerous case studies to illustrate concepts such as the global commodification of human bodies and body parts, modern forms of population, and the extension of biomedical technologies into domestic and intimate domains Winner of the 2010 Prose Award for Archaeology and Anthropology
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
Collecting a wide range of contemporary and classical essays dealing with medical ethics, this huge volu me is the finest resource available for engaging the pressin g problems posed by medical advances. '
Regenerative medicine is rich with promethean promises. The use of human embryonic stem cells in research is justified by its advocates in terms of promises to cure a wide range of diseases and disabilities, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinsonism to the results of heart attacks and spinal cord injuries. More broadly, there is the promethean allure of being able to redesign human biological nature in terms of the goals and concerns of humans. Needless to say, these allures and promises have provoked a wide range of not just moral but metaphysical reflections that reveal and reflect deep fault-lines in our cultures. The essays in this volume, directly and indirectly, present the points of controversy as they tease out the character of the moral issues that confront any attempt to develop the human regenerative technologies that might move us from a human to a post-human nature. Although one can appreciate the disputes as independently philosophical, they are surely also a function of the conflict between a Christian and a post-Christian culture, in that Christianity has from its beginning recognized a fundamental prohibition against the taking of early human life. Even the philosophical disputes that frame secular bioethics are often motivated and shaped by these background cultural conflicts. These essays display this circumstance in rich ways.
In the last few years, the boom in biobanking has prompted a lively debate on a host of interrelated legal issues, such as the Gordian knot of the ownership of biological materials, as well as privacy concerns. The latter are due to the difficulty of accepting that biological samples must be completely anonymous without making it practically impossible to exploit their information potential. The issues also include the delicate role and the changing content of the donor’s “informed consent” as the main legal tool that may serve to link the privacy and property interests of donors with the research interests and the set of principles that should be at the core of the biobanking practice. Lastly, the IP issues and the patentability of biological samples as well as the protection of databases storing genetic information obtained from the samples are covered. Collecting eighteen essays written by eminent scholars from Italy, the US, the UK and Canada, this book provides new solutions to these problems. From a comparative viewpoint, it explores the extent to which digital technology may assist in tackling the numerous regulatory issues raised by the practice of biobanking for research purposes. These issues may be considered and analyzed under the traditional paradigms of Property, Privacy, Informed Consent and Intellectual Property.
This book examines the relevance of a theoretical model of health care law-making in several Central and Eastern European countries. Confronted with the legacy of the ancient regime, the countries selected shifted away from a 'socialist' model towards a more 'market-oriented' health care system. From a legal perspective, this change of system imposed on government the need for drastic reforms starting with the introduction of a compulsory health insurance scheme based on the notion of solidarity. Future accession to the EU, requiring the incorporation of the acquis communautaire, has increased the complexity of legal reforms since. Strengthening the reform process, the author developed a method of law-making based on legal-theoretical understanding. Case study research in three selected countries justifies the conclusion that the analytical model rationalises the law-making activity, including the 'EU law approximation process'. What is more, it became apparent that the importance of this theoretical model is not restricted only to the selected countries but may also be a valuable instrument for other countries in transition in the region. Health care law-making in Central and Eastern Europe - Review of a legal-theoretical model provides a unique resource for scholars and policy makers interested in legal reforms in Central and Eastern European health care systems.
