Worst Case Bioethics

Death, Disaster, and Public Health

George J. Annas

Explores the current debates on global medical issues including national health care, experimental cancer drugs, quality of medicine and patient safety, preparation for a global flu pandemic, and regulating/outlawing cloning and germline genetic alterations.
Explores the current debates on global medical issues including national health care, experimental cancer drugs, quality of medicine and patient safety, preparation for a global flu pandemic, and regulating/outlawing cloning and germline genetic alterations.
Addresses national security issues concerning current national policies such as the best response to bioterrorism, force-feeding hunger strikers at Guantanamo, killing civilians in Afghanistan, with an emphasis on the roles played by physicians and lawyers in each.

Worst Case Bioethics

Death, Disaster, and Public Health

George J. Annas

Description

"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

Worst Case Bioethics

Death, Disaster, and Public Health

George J. Annas

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

Worst Case Bioethics

Death, Disaster, and Public Health

George J. Annas

Author Information

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.

Worst Case Bioethics

Death, Disaster, and Public Health

George J. Annas

Reviews and Awards

"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 Philosophy