Reuniting Human Rights and Bioethics to Address End-of-Life Medical Futility Disputes

Abstract:     
The fields of bioethics and human rights should be reunited and harmonized. Each can benefit from the other. Human rights can supply a language and framework to articulate arguments mooted and invisible in bioethics vocabulary. Bioethics has, for too long, focused on a too-narrow range of high-technology issues affecting few people. Human rights’ focus on globalization and public health can be used to beneficially reorient bioethics to address broader issues. Similarly, bioethics can benefit human rights. While end-of-life issues have been thoroughly examined in the bioethics world, they have just started coming onto the human rights agenda. Human rights law can gain a rich vocabulary and conceptual toolkit from bioethics.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 5

Keywords: bioethics, human rights, end of life, health law, medical futility

JEL Classification: K32, I18

working papers series