Abstract
Human rights and bioethics are conceptually and operationally much closer than usually assumed. This is not surprising as both normative frameworks emerged from the same dramatic events: the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Nuremberg trials. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948, which would become the cornerstone of the international human rights law, was to a significant extent informed by the horror caused by the revelation that prisoners of concentration camps, including children, were used by Nazi physicians as subjects of brutal experiments. This shocking discovery led the Nuremberg trial to develop in 1947 the famous ten principles for medical research, which have come to be known as the Nuremberg Code. In this regard, it has been reported that “the details revealed daily at Nuremberg gave content to the rights recognized by Articles 4 through 20 of the Declaration” (Baker 2001, p. 242). Similarly, it has been pointed out that “World War II was the crucible in which both human rights and bioethics were forged, and they have been related by blood ever since.” (Annas 2005, p. 160) The fact is that at present all major international ethical and policy instruments relating to bioethics adopt a human rights approach.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andorno, Roberto. 2013a. International policy and a universal conception of human dignity. In Human dignity in bioethics: From worldviews to the public square, ed. Nathan J. Palpant and Stephan Dilley, 127–141. New York: Routledge.
Andorno, Roberto. 2013b. Principles of international biolaw. Seeking common ground at the intersection of bioethics and human rights. Brussels: Bruylant.
Annas, George J. 2005. American bioethics. Crossing human rights and health law boundaries. New York: Oxford University Press.
Annas, George J., Lori Andrews, and Rosario Isasi. 2002. Protecting the endangered human: Toward an international treaty prohibiting cloning and inheritable alterations. American Journal of Law and Medicine 28(2–3): 151–178.
Ashcroft, Richard. 2010. Could human rights supersede bioethics? Human Rights Law Review 10(4): 639–660.
Baker, Robert. 2001. Bioethics and human rights: A historical perspective. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 10(3): 241–252.
Blith, Eric, and Abigail Farrand. 2004. Anonymity in donor-assisted conception and the UN convention on the rights of the child. The International Journal of Children’s Rights 12(2): 89–104.
Boussard, Helène. 2007. The ‘Normative Spectrum’ of an ethically-inspired legal instrument: The 2005 universal declaration on bioethics and human rights. In Biotechnologies and international human rights, ed. Francesco Francioni, 97–127. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
Donnelly, Jack. 1989. Universal human rights in theory and practice. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Faunce, Thomas. 2005. Will international human rights subsume medical ethics? Intersections in the UNESCO Universal Bioethics Declaration. Journal of Medical Ethics 31(3): 173–178.
Gordijn, Bert, and Henk Ten Have. 2014. Future perspectives. In Handbook of global bioethics, ed. Henk Ten Have and Bert Gordijn, 829–844. Dordrecht: Springer.
Habermas, Jürgen. 2003. The future of human nature. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jonas, Hans. 1985. Technik, Medizin und Genetik. Zur Praxis des Prinzips Verantwortung. Frankfurt: Insel.
Kirby, Michael. 2006. UNESCO and universal principles on bioethics: What’s next? In Proceedings: Twelfth session of the international bioethics committee, ed. UNESCO. Paris: UNESCO.
Knowles, Lori. 2001. The lingua franca of human rights and the rise of a global bioethics. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 10: 253–263.
Mann, Jonathan. 1996. Health and human rights. Protecting human rights is essential for promoting health. British Medical Journal 312: 924–925.
Nickel, James. 1987. Making sense of human rights: Philosophical reflections on the universal declaration of human rights. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Schroeder, Doris. 2005. Human rights and their role in global bioethics. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 14(2): 221–234.
Schuklenk, Udo and Landman, Willem. 2005. From the editors. In Developing world bioethics. Special issue: Reflections on the UNESCO Draft Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights 5(3): iii–vi.
Thomasma, David. 2001. Proposing a new agenda: Bioethics and international human rights. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 10: 299–310.
UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 2000. General comment no. 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health (Art. 12). Geneva: UN.
UNESCO. 2005. Universal declaration on bioethics and human rights. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Andorno, R. (2016). A Human Rights Approach to Bioethics. In: Serna, P., Seoane, JA. (eds) Bioethical Decision Making and Argumentation. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine, vol 70. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43419-3_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43419-3_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-43417-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-43419-3
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)