American Bioethics: Crossing Human Rights and Health Law Boundaries

Bioethics was 'born in the USA' and the values that American bioethics holds are based on American law, including freedom and justice. This book crosses the boundaries between bioethics and the law, but goes beyond domestic law/ bioethics struggling for supremacy by exploring attempts to articulate universal principles based on international human rights. The isolationism of bioethics in the United States is indefensible in the wake of scientific triumphs, such as the decoding of the human genome, and civilisational tragedies, such as international terrorism. Annas argues that by transcending the boundaries that have artificially separated bioethics and health law from the international human rights movement, US bioethics can be reborn as a global force for good, rather than serving primarily the goals of US scientists. This thesis is explored in a variety of international contexts, such as terrorism and genetic engineering, and domestic disputes in the United States, such as patients' rights and market medicine. Global citizens have created two universal codes: science has sequenced the human genome and the United Nations has created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The challenge for US bioethics is to combine these two wonderful codes in imaginative and constructive ways to make the world a better and healthier place to live.