Law at the Frontiers of Biomedicine: Creating, Enhancing and Extending Human Life

by Shaun D Pattinson

Overview

How should judges and legislators address challenges arising at the frontiers of biomedicine? What if it became possible to edit the DNA of embryos for enhanced traits, gestate a fetus in an artificial womb, self-modify brain implants to provide new skills or bring a frozen human back to life?

This book presents an innovative legal theory and applies it to future developments in biomedicine. This legal theory reconceptualises the role of legal officials in terms of moral principle and contextual constraints: 'contextual legal idealism'. It is applied by asking how a political leader or appeal court judge could address technological developments for which the current law of England and Wales would be ill-equipped to respond.

The book's central thesis is that the regulation of human conduct requires moral reasoning directed to the context in which it operates. The link between abstract theory and practical application is articulated using future developments within four areas of biomedicine. Developments in heritable genome editing and cybernetic biohacking are addressed using Explanatory Notes to hypothetical UK Parliamentary Bills. Developments in ectogestation and cryonic reanimation are addressed using hypothetical appeal court judgments.

The book will be of great interest to scholars and students of medical/health law, criminal law, bioethics, biolaw, legal theory and moral philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509941094
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/26/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	683 KB

About the Author

Shaun D Pattinson is Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at Durham University, UK.
Shaun D Pattinson is Professor of Medical Law and Ethics at Durham University, UK. He was the founding Director of Durham CELLS (Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences), previously Deputy Chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow. His other books include Influencing Traits Before Birth, Medical Law and Ethics, Revising Landmark Cases in Medical Law, and a collection co-edited with Patrick Capps, Ethical Rationalism and the Law. Shaun is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Moral and Legal Theory
1. Moral and Legal Values
2. Contextual Legal Idealism

Part 2: Case Studies
3. Heritable Genome Editing
4. Ectogestation
5. Cybernetic Biohacking
6. Cryonic Reanimation

Part Three: Conclusion
7. Legal Theory at the Frontiers of Biomedicine

Editorial Reviews

I would advise all biomedical lawyers to put this book at the top of their reading list.” —Roger Brownsword, King's College London, UK, Medical Law International

“An innovative, well researched and challenging analysis of novel issues in bioethics. It is interestingly constructed and engagingly written. It can be recommended to readers of the Jourbanal as a thought-provoking and worthwhile call to analyse new technologies in new ways, while retaining the best of what law reform and judicial analysis have to offer to deal with the ethical challenges that lie ahead in ways that cannot easily be predicted (but will soon arrive) on the interface between law and medicine.” —Ian Freckelton AO KC, University of Melbourbane, Jourbanal of Law and Medicine

From the Publisher