Worst Case Bioethics: Death, Disaster, and Public Health

by George J. Annas

Overview

"Carefully reasoned, clearly articulated, and pulls no punches...Boldly tackles the most contentious issues in bioethics and public policy....Worst Case Bioethics is certain to provoke strong responses across disciplines and ideologies on issues of great importance."- Mark Rothstein, Journal of Legal Medicine "Annas persuasively argues in Worst Case Bioethics that basing policy on extreme nightmare possibilities leads to a distortion of fundamental ethical principles and legal protections." - Arthur L. Caplan, The Lancet "Worst Case Bioethics offers a valuable consideration of how public health policy is sometimes shaped by fear in a counterproductive manner. The book is well-written, well-reasoned, and persuasive." - Thomas May, Science

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190452995
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	742 KB

About the Author

George Annas is William Fairfield Warren Professor at Boston University and Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics&Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health. He is also Professor in the Boston University schools of Medicine and Law. He is the co-founder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational group that promotes human rights and health. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Institute of Medicine, and a member of the National Academies' Human Rights Committee.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Scared to Death by Worst Case Scenarios Death and Disaster 1. American Healthcare 2. Bioterror and Bioart 3. State of Emergency 4. Licensed to Torture 5. Hunger Strikes 6. War Death and the Constitution 7. Cancer 8. Drug Dealing Doctors 9. Toxic Tinkering 10. Abortion 11. Culture of Death 12. Patient Safety Disaster and Human Rights 13. Global Health 14. The Statue of Security 15. Pandemic Fear 16. Bioidentifiers 17. Genetic Genocide Index

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: D. Robert MacDougall, MDiv (Saint Louis University)
Description: This book explains how decision making with the worst case scenario in mind has had a chronically negative impact on both medical and public health policy.
Purpose: The purpose is to show that policies involving human rights abuses or infringements on civil liberties are sometimes justified by appealing to the potential development of worst case scenarios, but that policies or plans developed on such a basis are nearly always self defeating. The book corrals many illustrative examples from a wide range of health laws in accomplishing its objectives.
Audience: It is aimed at both bioethicists and scholars in related fields, such as health law, medicine, and public health. The book is not overly technical and should be accessible to all of its intended audience. The author has published several well-known works related to health law and bioethics and is widely considered an expert in this field.
Features: The book is divided into three parts that deal with the way the U.S. healthcare system is designed around the avoidance of death, the role this sort of worst-case scenario thinking has had in judicial decisions involving physicians, and the effect that such worst-case thinking has had on public health policy. The author uses his underlying theme, the avoidance of worst-case scenarios, in an imaginative way to draw together several features of U.S. healthcare and law that are not usually considered together. For example, it is particularly interesting to see him trace the infringements of civil liberties in public health, and the inefficient basic structure of U.S. healthcare delivery, to the same root cause. However, he also has a proclivity for asserting politically contentious opinions as though they are facts, neglecting to defend them or even indicate he is aware that they need to be defended.
Assessment: Most readers interested in these topics will find this a creative and insightful rubric for examining different aspects of U.S. healthcare and law.

Doody's Review Service

"George Annas, one of the country's most respected bioethicists, shows how worst case thinking has consistently driven bad public policy, on issues from torture and counterterrorism to assisted suicide and the way we plan for pandemics. His sober perspective is welcome in a field that is often subject to extreme predictions and even more extreme remedies."

—Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

"This is vintage Annas—astute and analytically arresting. There are few who can match Annas' broad knowledge of the worst case medical-legal scenarios multiplying in today's bioethical discourse."

—Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., M.A.C.P., Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Georgetown University

"...a creative and insightful rubric for examining different aspects of U.S. healthcare and law."—Doody's

"In short, Worst Case Bioethics offers a valuable consideration of how public health policy is sometimes shaped by fear in a counterproductive manner. The book is well written, well reasoned, and persuasive. I recommend it highly to all who are interested in bioethics, public health policy, or national security policy." —Science

"To readers unfamiliar with his work, this means it is carefully reasoned, clearly articulated, and pulls no punches. He boldly tackles the most contentious issues in bioethics and public policy, including abortion, physician-assisted suicide, the death penalty, torture, medical marijuana, and patient safety." —The Journal of Legal Medicine

"It is a rarity when a highly regarded substantive expert writes a compelling book that addresses cogently some of the most important public policy issues of our time. George J. Annas has done that in his new book Worst Case Bioethics, Death, Disaster, and Public Health...it is as important as it is complete..."—The Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy

From the Publisher