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Bioethics And Self-Governance: The Lessons Of The Universal Declaration On Bioethics And Human Rights, O. Carter Snead
Bioethics And Self-Governance: The Lessons Of The Universal Declaration On Bioethics And Human Rights, O. Carter Snead
O. Carter Snead
The following article analyzes the process of conception, elaboration, and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, and reflects on the lessons it might hold for public bioethics on the international level. The author was involved in the process at a variety of levels: he provided advice to the IBC on behalf of the President's Council of Bioethics; he served as the U.S. representative to UNESCO's Intergovernmental Bioethics Committee; and led the U.S. Delegation in the multilateral negotiation of Government experts that culminated in the adoption of the declaration in its final form. The author is currently …
Blood Transfusions, Jehovah’S Witnesses, And The American Patients’ Rights Movement, Charles H. Baron
Blood Transfusions, Jehovah’S Witnesses, And The American Patients’ Rights Movement, Charles H. Baron
Charles H. Baron
The litigation to protect Jehovah’s Witnesses from unwanted blood transfusions, which their theology considers a violation of the biblical prohibition against drinking blood, has produced important changes in both the right to refuse treatment and in the preferred treatment methods of all patients. This article traces the evolution of the rights of competent medical patients in the United States to refuse medical treatment. It also discusses the impact this litigation has had on the medical community’s realization that blood transfusions were neither as safe nor as medically necessary as medical culture posited.