Perspectives on Health and Human Rights
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《新英格兰医药杂志》
During the past decade, a growing body of interdisciplinary academic literature has explored the relationship between health and human rights. Not surprisingly, much of that scholarship has focused on either the health implications of human rights violations or the effect of health policies and programs on human rights. Another dominant theme is the synergy between health and human rights. Contributors have sought to substantiate the hypothesis of the late Jonathan Mann that the promotion and protection of health and human rights are "inextricably linked." A selection of articles in this new field was reprinted in Health and Human Rights: A Reader, edited by Mann et al. (New York: Routledge, 1999), and this book soon became a popular teaching aid at schools of public health offering courses on health and human rights. Perspectives on Health and Human Rights is described as a "follow-up" and companion volume to this earlier collection.
Like its predecessor, Perspectives reproduces already published work. It opens with a broad analysis of the links between health and human rights. (For those unfamiliar with the field — and, in particular, with human rights treaties, law, and institutions — the first chapter is a useful primer.) Articles exploring these links are then arranged into four substantive sections: development, emerging technologies, sexual and reproductive health, and violence. Although these categories provide a helpful framework, they are necessarily broadly construed and tend to lead to some unusual bedfellows. The section on emerging technologies begins with two articles on cloning and genetic manipulation, before drawing attention to less glamorous but far more important work on patents and access to essential drugs. In the section on violence, a persuasive article by Joan LeGraw and Michael Grodin condemning the participation of medical personnel in executions by lethal injection rubs shoulders with a report by Physicians for Human Rights on maternal mortality in the Herat Province of Afghanistan.
Two subsequent sections explore the use of qualitative and quantitative methods in health and human rights and analyze recent case law from South Africa and Venezuela on the "right to health" — a concept alien to U.S. jurisprudence. The book ends with a discussion of human rights advocacy, education, and mobilization that makes clear the editors' commitment to health and human rights as something more than an intellectual discipline. The editors emphasize the responsibility of health professionals to protect and promote human rights, and one editor observes that "medical ethics devoid of human rights become no more than hollow symbols." This is all the more poignant in light of the recent revelations concerning the role of health care personnel in aggressive interrogations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
It is easy to criticize collections for errors of omission, but there is a conspicuous absence here. Although the events of September 11, 2001, and the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic of 2003 are mentioned briefly in the introduction, none of the chapters in the book focus on the tensions between the protection of human rights and public health in the context of public health emergencies, whether due to terrorism or acts of God. The significance of these issues has been highlighted by Hurricane Katrina (and its aftermath) and by the emergence of avian flu as a global threat, but important developments and debates in both domestic and international arenas predate these occurrences.
That said, Perspectives on Health and Human Rights is a handy compendium of some of the recent literature. It will also be a valuable teaching aid for anyone seeking to bring health and human rights into the curriculum of a school of public health, law, medicine, or nursing.
Jonathan H. Marks, M.A., B.C.L.
Georgetown University Law Center
Washington, DC 20001
jm486@law.georgetown.edu(Edited by Sofia Gruskin, )
Like its predecessor, Perspectives reproduces already published work. It opens with a broad analysis of the links between health and human rights. (For those unfamiliar with the field — and, in particular, with human rights treaties, law, and institutions — the first chapter is a useful primer.) Articles exploring these links are then arranged into four substantive sections: development, emerging technologies, sexual and reproductive health, and violence. Although these categories provide a helpful framework, they are necessarily broadly construed and tend to lead to some unusual bedfellows. The section on emerging technologies begins with two articles on cloning and genetic manipulation, before drawing attention to less glamorous but far more important work on patents and access to essential drugs. In the section on violence, a persuasive article by Joan LeGraw and Michael Grodin condemning the participation of medical personnel in executions by lethal injection rubs shoulders with a report by Physicians for Human Rights on maternal mortality in the Herat Province of Afghanistan.
Two subsequent sections explore the use of qualitative and quantitative methods in health and human rights and analyze recent case law from South Africa and Venezuela on the "right to health" — a concept alien to U.S. jurisprudence. The book ends with a discussion of human rights advocacy, education, and mobilization that makes clear the editors' commitment to health and human rights as something more than an intellectual discipline. The editors emphasize the responsibility of health professionals to protect and promote human rights, and one editor observes that "medical ethics devoid of human rights become no more than hollow symbols." This is all the more poignant in light of the recent revelations concerning the role of health care personnel in aggressive interrogations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
It is easy to criticize collections for errors of omission, but there is a conspicuous absence here. Although the events of September 11, 2001, and the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic of 2003 are mentioned briefly in the introduction, none of the chapters in the book focus on the tensions between the protection of human rights and public health in the context of public health emergencies, whether due to terrorism or acts of God. The significance of these issues has been highlighted by Hurricane Katrina (and its aftermath) and by the emergence of avian flu as a global threat, but important developments and debates in both domestic and international arenas predate these occurrences.
That said, Perspectives on Health and Human Rights is a handy compendium of some of the recent literature. It will also be a valuable teaching aid for anyone seeking to bring health and human rights into the curriculum of a school of public health, law, medicine, or nursing.
Jonathan H. Marks, M.A., B.C.L.
Georgetown University Law Center
Washington, DC 20001
jm486@law.georgetown.edu(Edited by Sofia Gruskin, )