Worst Case Bioethics Death, Disaster, and Public Health [Paperback]

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

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

So the stereotypical charge that international law cannot be enforced for purposes of promoting public health is by and large a product of our frustration with the sloppy, sluggish, and cynical approach to health and human rights. Annas has provided an opportunity to begin this debate anew by using domestic cases and topics to illustrate that human rights is central to securing our individual and population health.

George Annas examines worst case scenarios in the American context and assesses their impacts on individuals, physicians and the government. He wistfully discusses the diverging views on disconcerting topics such as death and disaster. --Medicine, Health Care, and Pl,