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Full-Text Articles in Law
Physicians And Torture: Lessons From The Nazi Doctors, George J. Annas
Physicians And Torture: Lessons From The Nazi Doctors, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
How is it possible? What are the personal, professional and political contexts that allow physicians to use their skills to torture and kill rather than heal? What are the psychological characteristics and the social, cultural and political factors that predispose physicians to participate in human rights abuses? What can be done to recognize at-risk situations and attempt to provide corrective or preventive strategies? This article examines case studies from Nazi Germany in an attempt to answer these questions. Subjects discussed include the psychology of the individual perpetrator, dehumanization, numbing, splitting, omnipotence, medicalization, group dynamics, obedience to authority, diffusion of responsibility, …
The Man On The Moon, Immortality, And Other Millennial Myths: The Prospects And Perils Of Human Genetic Engineering, George J. Annas
The Man On The Moon, Immortality, And Other Millennial Myths: The Prospects And Perils Of Human Genetic Engineering, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
The year 2000 provides an opportunity to reflect and speculate on human life in the year 3000. We cannot know what human life will be like a thousand years from now, but we can and should think seriously about what we would like it to be. What is unique about human beings and about being human? What makes humans human? What qualities of the human species must we preserve to preserve humanity itself? What would a "better human" be like? If genetic engineering techniques work, are there human qualities we should try to temper, and ones we should try to …
Stem Cell Politics, Ethics And Medical Progress, George J. Annas
Stem Cell Politics, Ethics And Medical Progress, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
Controversy over how to fund and regulate stem cell research continues in the US and is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that it is prepared to fund stem cell research under yet-to-be-specified guidelines. The National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) issued a report on stem cells in mid-September, recommending that Congress change the law to permit the derivation and use of stem cells from embryos no longer needed for reproduction purposes that are stored at in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics. The NBAC also recommended that the Department of Health and Human Services …
Human Rights And Health - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights At 50, George J. Annas
Human Rights And Health - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights At 50, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
War, famine, pestilence, and poverty have had obvious and devastating effects on health throughout human history. In recent times, human rights have come to be viewed as essential to freedom and individual development. But it is only since the end of World War II that the link between human rights and these causes of disease and death has been recognized.1-3 The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — signed on December 10, 1948 — provides an opportunity to review its genesis, to explore the contemporary link between health and human rights, and to develop effective human-rights …
The Politics Of Human-Embryo Research: Avoiding Ethical Gridlock, George J. Annas
The Politics Of Human-Embryo Research: Avoiding Ethical Gridlock, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
[...]abortion is about more than politics; it is fundamentally about ethics, morals, equality, and religion, and how we think about abortion reveals much about how we are likely to think about other life-and-death issues in contemporary American medical practice. Because politics as currently practiced seems so unprincipled, there have been sporadic attempts to redefine abortion-related issues as ethical questions and to set up national panels and advisory groups to examine various practices and make recommendations about their ethics.
Mapping The Human Genome And The Meaning Of Monster Mythology, George J. Annas
Mapping The Human Genome And The Meaning Of Monster Mythology, George J. Annas
Faculty Scholarship
Pre-Columbian cartographers drew their maps to the extent of their knowledge, and then wrote in the margins, "Beyond this point there are dragons." With the voyage of Columbus, we lost both our fear of the geographic frontier and our innocence. We accept that knowledge can generally overpower fear; but we have also learned that the application of new knowledge often has a dark side that can lead to brutality and disaster. The discovery of America, for example, led to unforeseen value conflicts of justice and fairness involving native Americans that were "resolved" only by their merciless subjugation and genocidal destruction. …