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Law & Bioethics: From Values to Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

Debate over the relationship of law and bioethics is growing - what the relationship has been and what it should be in the future. While George Annas has praised law and rights-talk for creating modern bioethics, Carl Schneider has instead blamed law for hijacking bioethics and stunting moral reflection. Indeed, as modern bioethics approaches the 40-year mark, historians of bioethics are presenting divergent accounts. In one account, typified by Albert Jonsen, bioethics largely grew out of philosophy and theology, not law. In another account, law has deeply shaped bioethics from the start, forging its central commitment to the rights of patients and research subjects and the fields imposition of broad fiduciary responsibilities on health care professionals and researchers.

In addition to debating how to properly describe laws historical relationship to bioethics, commentators have argued over whether laws influence in bioethics is now good or bad.

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Article
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Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2004

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References

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To tap into the sizeable literature critiquing use of grand narrative, see, e.g., Guinier, L. Torres, G., The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002): 3438; Ewick, P. Silbey, S.S., “Subversive Stories and Hegemonic Tales: Toward a Sociology of Narrative,” Law & Society Review 29 (1995): 197226; Coombs, M.I., “Outsider Scholarship: The Law Review Stories,” University of Colorado Law Review 63 (1992): 683–716; Abrams, K., “Hearing the Call of Stories,” California Law Review 79 (1991): 971–1052.Google Scholar
The completed reports of the President’s Council are: President’s Council on Bioethics, Reproduction and Responsibility, supra note 40; President’s Council on Bioethics, Monitoring Stem Cell Research (Washington, DC: 2004); President’s Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness (Washington, DC: 2003); President’s Council on Bioethics, Human Cloning, supra note 13. I do not include an anthology of readings also issued by the Council without normative recommendations. President’s Council on Bioethics, Being Human: Readings from the President’s Council on Bioethics (Washington, DC: 2003). On the work of the President’s Council, see <www.bioethics.gov> (last visited May 18, 2004).+(last+visited+May+18,+2004).>Google Scholar
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See Human Cloning Ban and Stem Cell Research Protection Act of 2003, S. 303, 108th Cong. (2003); Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, H.R. 534, 108th Cong. (2003); Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, S. 245, 108th Cong. (2003), Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, H.R. 234, 108th Cong. (2003); Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, H.R. 801, 108th Cong. (2003).Google Scholar
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Id. at 220. The eight practices that the Council recommends for Congressional prohibition are: Transferring a human embryo into a non-human, mixing human and non-human gametes to produce an embryo, transferring a human embryo to a woman’s uterus for any purpose other than producing a baby, trying to conceive a child by means other than joining egg and sperm, using gametes from a human fetus or stems cells from a human embryo to try to conceive a child, fusing blastomeres from two or more embryos to attempt human conception, conducting research on human embryos beyond 10–14 days after fertilization, and buying or selling human embryos. Id. at 220–27.Google Scholar
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See Frase, R.S., “Criminalization and Decriminalization,” in Bernard, T.J. et al. , eds., Encyclopedia of Crime & Justice (New York: Macmillan, 2d ed. 2001): vol. 1 at 347–61, 358 (quoting, at 358, James Fitzjames Stephen).Google Scholar
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Alta Charo has explored related terrain in trying to develop a bioethics of public policy. See Charo, R.A., “Dealing with Dolly: Cloning and the National Bioethics Advisory Commission” Jurimetrics Journal 38 (Fall 1997): 1122; Charo, R.A., “The Hunting of the Snark: The Moral Status of Embryos, Right-to-Lifers, and Third World Women,” Stanford Law & Policy Review 6 (1995): 11–27.Google Scholar
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See Wolf, S.M., “Ethics Committees and Due Process: Nesting Rights in a Community of Caring,” Maryland Law Review 50 (1991): 798858; Wolf, S.M., “Toward a Theory of Process,” Law, Medicine & Health Care 20 (1993): 278 – 90.Google Scholar
See Blackburn, E., “Bioethics and the Political Distortion of Biomedical Science,” New England Journal of Medicine 350 (2004): 1379–80; Caplan, A.L. et al. , “Petition Sponsored by Arthur Caplan, PhD.,” Mar. 3, 2004 (e-mail, on file with the author).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cf. Union of Concerned Scientists, “Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policy-making,” available at <www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/signon.html> (last visited April 26, 2004) (letter from 60 prominent scientists accusing the current Bush administration of misusing science); Glanz, J., “Scientists Say Administration Distorts Facts,” New York Times, Feb. 19, 2004, at A18. On problems of fair representation, see also Callahan, , supra note 90, at chapter 7; Spielman, B., “Should Consensus Be ‘The Commission Method’ in the US? The Perspective of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Regulations, and Case Law,” Bioethics 17 (2003): 341–56.+(last+visited+April+26,+2004)+(letter+from+60+prominent+scientists+accusing+the+current+Bush+administration+of+misusing+science);+Glanz,+J.,+“Scientists+Say+Administration+Distorts+Facts,”+New+York+Times,+Feb.+19,+2004,+at+A18.+On+problems+of+fair+representation,+see+also+Callahan,+,+supra+note+90,+at+chapter+7;+Spielman,+B.,+“Should+Consensus+Be+‘The+Commission+Method’+in+the+US?+The+Perspective+of+the+Federal+Advisory+Committee+Act,+Regulations,+and+Case+Law,”+Bioethics+17+(2003):+341–56.>Google Scholar
Bethany Spielman offers a model of such scholarship in her work on what law has to teach bioethics on the desirability of consensus within federal commissions. See Spielman, , supra note 101.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Symposium, “The Legal Construction of Norms,” Virginia Law Review 86 (2000): 15772021; Symposium, “Social Norms, Social Meaning, and the Economic Analysis of Law,” Journal of Legal Studies 27 (1998): 537–823; Symposium, “Normative Failure Theory of Law,” Cornell Law Review 82 (1997): 947–79; McAdams, R.H., “The Origin, Development, and Regulation of Norms,”Michigan Law Review 96 (1997): 338–433; Sunstein, C., “Social Norms and Social Roles,”Columbia Law Review 96 (1996): 903–68; Lessig, L., “The Regulation of Social Meaning,” University of Chicago Law Review 62 (1995): 943–1045.Google Scholar
Scholars beginning to explore the implications of work on law and norms for problems in bioethics include Gail Agrawal and Arti Rai. See Agrawal, G.B., “Resuscitating Professionalism: Self-Regulation in the Medical Marketplace,” Missouri Law Review 66 (2001): 341–411; Rai, A.K., “Regulating Scientific Research: Intellectual Property Rights and the Norms of Science,” Northwestern University Law Review 94 (1999): 77–152.Google Scholar
On litigation against bioethicists and their potential liability, individually and as committee members, see, e.g., Sontag, D.N., “Are Clinical Ethics Consultants in Danger? An Analysis of the Potential Legal Liability of Individual Clinical Ethicists,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 151 (2002): 667705 (discussing the Gelsinger, Robertson, and older Bouvia cases); Merritt, A.L., “The Tort Liability of Hospital Ethics Committees”, Southern California Law Review 60 (1987): 1239–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
See, e.g., Bosk, C., “The Licensing and Certification of Ethics Consultants: What Part of ‘No!’ Was So Hard to Understand?” in Aulisio, M.P. Arnold, R.M. Youngner, S.J., eds., Ethics Consultation: From Theory to Practice (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003): 147–63; Churchill, L.R., “Are We Professionals? A Critical Look at the Social Role of Bioethicists,” Daedalus128, no. 4 (1999): 253–74; Shalit, R., “When We Were Philosopher Kings,” New Republic 216, no. 17 (1997): 24– 28; Baylis, F.E., ed., The Health Care Ethics Consultant (Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1994); Scofield, G.R., “Here Come the Ethicists!” Trends in Health Care, Law & Ethics, 8 no. 4 (1993): 19–22; Scofield, G.R., “Ethics Consultation: The Least Dangerous Profession?” Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 2 (1993): 417–25. There is a closely related debate over whether bioethicists can claim a genuine expertise. See, e.g., Pellegrino, E.D., “Clinical Ethics Consultations: Some Reflection on the Report of the SHHV-SBC,” Journal of Clinical Ethics 10, no. 1 (1999): 5–12; Casarett, D.J. Daskal, F. Lantos, J., “Experts in Ethics? The Authority of the Clinical Ethicist,”Hastings Center Report28, no. 6(1998): 611; Caplan, A.L., “Moral Experts and Moral Expertise: Do Either Exist?” in Hoffmaster, B. Freedman, B. Fraser, G., eds., Clinical Ethics: Theory and Practice (Clifton, NJ: Humana Press, 1989): 59–87. Related to that has been a further debate on the role of the bioethicist as expert witness in court. See, e.g., Spielman, B. Agich, G., “The Future of Bioethics Testimony: Guidelines for Determining Qualifications, Reliability, and Helpfulness,” San Diego Law Review 36 (1999): 1043–7; Delgado and McAllen, supra note 55.Google Scholar
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