Main description:

Within contemporary society, globalization has emerged as a key concern at the centre of ethical, legal and policy debates relating to health care. Conflicts between public interests and individual rights, the challenge of regulating health professionals and access to health services, and the effects of a global market all feature prominently in these discussions. As a result of globalization, these issues can no longer be understood solely within the political boundaries that define traditional notions of individuals and communities. Rather, solutions demand a global conception of rights and obligations, which in turn requires new approaches to health policy formulation and a reevaluation of existing ethical and legal frameworks. In essence, the impact of globalization on human health is testing the robustness of modern regulatory systems, legal doctrines and ethical paradigms. PUBLIC HEALTH: DEVELOPING GLOBAL CONCERNS The interconnectedness of the global economy presents new challenges in public health. While globalization has facilitated improvements in health care, it has also created new hazards and avenues for the exploitation of vulnerable persons. It is becoming increasingly apparent that both national and international responses are required. Indeed, as the chapters in this section convey, public health is rightly a global concern. Globalization has led to a sharing of both risks and responsibilities in public health. Belinda Bennett reminds us of the ease with which infectious diseases can spread within the global community, given the speed of modern travel and trade.

Feature:

Highly topical given current concerns about such issues as contagious diseases, health tourism, developing world health, and global corporate responsibility

A multidisciplinary approach involving leading scholars

Globalization and Health is an important and emerging specialty area of discourse in bioethics, health law and policy

Back cover:

This timely collection explores ethical and legal dilemmas in healthcare arising from globalization. Conflicts between public interests and individual rights, the challenge of regulating professionals and access to health services, and the effects of a global market all feature prominently in contemporary debates in this area. As a result of globalization, issues in health law and bioethics can no longer be understood solely within political boundaries that define traditional notions of individuals and communities. Rather, solutions for emerging problems require a global conception of rights and obligations, including the re-evaluation of ethical frameworks and legal regimes that currently govern exchanges in healthcare. Leading scholars in bioethics, law, medicine and philosophy from various jurisdictions engage these themes in this volume, and demonstrate the need for transnational solutions in a global age of healthcare.

Contents:

Preface. Acknowledgments. Contributors.
Part 1: Public Health: Developing Global Concerns. 1. Travel in a small world: SARS, globalization and public health laws; B. Bennett. 2. Globalization and health: A developing world perspective on ethical and policy issues; U. Schüklenk, B. Braimo. 3. Justice and international research: The plaintiff’s dilemma; G. Tomossy, J. Ford. 4. Pharmaceutical companies, ethics and obligation; Deborah Zion.
Part 2: The Global Bio-Economy. 5. Regulating the bio-economy: A preliminary assessment of biotechnology and law; D. Morgan. 6. The global context for risk governance: National regulatory policy in an international framework; A. Irwin. 7. Cruel ideology: The global assault of trade-related intellectual property rights on bioethics and public health law; T.A. Faunce. 8. Directing consumption: Direct-to-consumer advertising and global public health; P. Peppin. 9. Globalization and biotechnology policy: The challenges created by gene patents and cloning technologies; T. Caulfield, B. von Tigerstrom.
Part 3: Globalization and Healthcare. 10. The rights of donor-conceived children to know the identity of their donor: The problem of the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns; K. Petersen. 11. Globalization and English medical law: Strains and contradictions; J. Harrington. 12. Health practitioner regulation: Emerging patterns and challenges for the age of globalization; I. Freckelton.