Browsing by Subject "Human Rights"
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Item Biomedical technologies and human dignity(2016-03-08) Melo-Martín, Inmaculada deCurrent biomedical advancements are presenting us with difficult moral and policy decisions. Indeed, from questions about the morality of cloning human embryos, to concerns about human genetic modifications, to worries about chimera research, biomedical science and technology is inextricably tied to moral responsibilities and public policy concerns. Scholars and institutions struggle to evaluate these technologies in ways that attend to both the moral difficulties they raise and the promises they offer. Despite criticism that the concept of human dignity is vague, several national and international bodies and a number of scholars have argued that human dignity is a useful criterion to determine the permissibility of particular biomedical technologies. Here, I explore the meanings of this concept, examine the ways in which biomedical technologies can be said to threaten human dignity, and evaluate whether and under which conditions this concept can serve as a meaningful criterion for public policy.Item Dignity in later life (The Daniel W. Foster, M.D., Visiting Lectureship in Medical Ethics)(2023-12-12) Jecker, Nancy S.Some argue dignity is a useless concept that bioethics can do without. Against this view, I show dignity is a central concern for bioethics, particularly for older people. Dignity's importance during later life is part of a broader view I call the life stage relativity of values. It holds that different values emerge as central at different periods of our lives. During early life, caring, trust, and nurturing figure prominently due to vulnerabilities that characterize infancy and childhood. By adulthood, greater physical and emotional independence leads to autonomy and self-reliance taking center stage. During later life, heightened risk for chronic disease and disability makes keeping dignity intact a critical concern. Across the lifespan, the highest value for an individual relates to their life stage circumstances. Ignoring this can lead to life stage bias, especially midlife bias, which occurs when we apply values central during midlife to all life stages.Item How the health and rights framework evolved and how that affects clinical research(2020-01-14) Inrig, StephenWhile the World Health Organization's (WHO) constitution defined "the highest attainable standard of health" as "a fundamental right of every human being" as early as 1946, it was not until the late 1980s, amidst the AIDS pandemic, that WHO representatives developed the "Health and Human Rights Framework" as a lens through which to understand and address inequalities in the global burden of disease. While the concept itself met with broad and rapid approval, several factors made it difficult to operationalize in health delivery. Beginning in the early 2000s, however, practitioners have made important strides in operationalizing these concepts in ways that have positively influenced local and global health delivery. This talk explores the development of "health and human rights" concepts over time, giving particular attention to the implications they have on drug research, clinical research ethics, the pharmaceutical industry, and the right to access medicines.Item The law and ethics of conscientious refusal(2019-04-09) Sepper, ElizabethThe presentation will examine conflicts of conscience that arise between patients, healthcare providers, and institutions in the field of medicine, especially with regard to reproductive health and end-of-life care. More specifically, it considers "conscientious refusal"-a provider's exercise of his/her conscience in refusing to perform or participate in a procedure that is deemed ethically and legally permissible. It will give an overview of the history and development of legislative and court protections for conscientious refusals. It will identify ways in which existing legislation fails to advance its purported goals of protecting conscience, risks harm to patients, and destabilizes ethical decision-making within medicine itself. It will conclude with an assessment of future directions.