The lingua Franca of human rights and the rise of a global bioethic

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 253-263

  Knowles, Lori P ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BIOETHICS; BIOETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS; HEALTH; HUMAN; HUMAN RIGHTS; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; MANAGEMENT; NOMENCLATURE; POLITICAL SYSTEM; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; UNITED STATES; UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS;

BIOETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS; UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS;

BIOETHICS; HUMAN RIGHTS; HUMANS; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; POLICY MAKING; POLITICAL SYSTEMS; SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY; TERMINOLOGY; UNITED STATES; WORLD HEALTH;

EID: 0035354563     PISSN: 09631801     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S096318010100305X     Document Type: Review

References (38)

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2. A recent issue of National Geographic explored the emergence of a "global culture." Global culture. National Geographic 1999;196(2):2-132.
3. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by U.N. General Assembly Resolution 217A(III), 10 December 1948. (Hereafter, UHDR.)
4. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. Res. 2200(XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR, Supp (No. 16) 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316, 1966.
5. International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, Supp. (No. 16) 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316, 1966.
6. Fluss SS, ed. International Guidelines on Bioethics. Supplement to the EFGCP News, September 1998.
7. On the international front UNAIDS, the joint U.N. organization on HIV/AIDS cosponsored by six U.N. agencies, has been largely responsible for protecting the human rights of infected people as well as promoting and developing efforts to bring them treatment and to stop the spread of the disease through public health initiatives. See McConahay MJ. Living with HIV in Poland. Choices 1998;7(4):18-23.
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9. Chapman AR. Earth rights and responsibilities: symposium overview. The Yale Journal of International Law 1993;18(1):215.
10. See note 1, Sachs 1998:4.
11. Eiseman E. Cloning human beings: recent scientific and policy developments. RAND, Science and Technology Policy Institute, 1999. Available from: www.bioethics.gov.
12. See Knowles LP. Primordial stem cell regulation: implications of assisted reproductive technology policies among nations. Journal of Women's Health and Law 1999;1(1):31-58.
13. Annas GJ, Grodin MA, eds. The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. London/New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.
14. Respectively, Articles 5 and 4, UDHR (see note 3).
15. Respectively, Articles 26, 23, and 24, UDHR (see note 3).
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17. Armas GJ. Some Choice: Law, Medicine, and the Market. London/New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
18. This is the basis for Professor Hyakudai Sakamoto's call at the 1999 International Bioethics Association meeting for a "minimization of human rights" as necessary to respect cultures with a holistic rather than individualist philosophy. A dichotomy was described as existing between the Asian ethos, which "places higher estimation on a well-ordered society than on the individual interests or individual rights and dignity," and Western bioethics, which "in the USA has often meant the establishment of legal system about bioethical issues from the viewpoint of human rights." In fact, domestic American bioethics is remarkable for its lack of reference to the human rights framework. Consequently, in framing this dichotomy it is clear that, for Professor Sakamoto, "human rights" are placeholders for Western notions of "individual rights." For a careful analysis of this issue, see Bauer JR, Bell DA, eds. The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights. London/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
19. Signatories to the UDHR have pledged to "strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance." Preamble, UDHR (see note 3).
20. Preamble, UDHR (see note 3).
21. See note 16, Chapman 1994.5.
22. See note 1, Sachs 1998:8.
23. See note 1, Sachs 1998:8-9.
24. See, for example, Popovic NAF. Pursing environmental justice with international human rights and states constitutions. Stanford Environmental Law Journal 1996;15:338.
25. See note 6, Fluss 1998.
26. See, for example, World Medical Association Resolution on Human Rights of October, 1990, Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge, adopted in Budapest on 2 July 1999.
27. See, for example, the World Charter for Nature, World Conference on Science, Declaration on Science and the use of Scientific Knowledge.
28. See, for example, Draft Declaration on Principles of Human Rights and the Environment in Final Report 90, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4.sub.2/1994/9 (1994).
29. The Earth Charter Commission issued a final version of the Earth Charter after their meeting on March 12-14, 2000, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Full text is available from: www.earthcharter.org.
30. Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (adopted on November 11, 1997, by UNESCO) endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly on December 9, 1998. Res. no. A/RES/53/152.
31. International Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with Regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine, commonly referred to as the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, 1997: This instrument is the first internationally binding legal text designed to protect individuals against the misuse of biological and medical advances such as discrimination on the basis of genetic makeup.
32. For example, the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine became legally binding in Denmark, Greece, San Marino, Slovakia, and Slovenia in December, 1999. See Biomedicine convention into law in five countries. Nature 1999;400:704-5.
33. World Health Organization. Constitution. In: Basic Documents, 36th ed. Paris: WHO, 1986.
34. See note 1, Sachs 1998:3-17, 9.
35. See note 8, Mann et al. 1999:29-71.
36. Yamin AE. Ethnic cleansing and other lies: combining health and human rights in the search for truth and justice in the former Yugoslavia. Health and Human Rights 1996;2(1):59-87.
37. See note 36, Yamin 1996.
38. Soskolne CL, Bertollini R. Global ecological integrity and 'sustainable development': cornerstones of public health. Ecology and Health: A Discussion Document. Rome: WHO ECEH, July 1999.