Health care reform has been a dominant theme in public discourse for decades now. The passage of the Affordable Care Act was a major milestone, but rather than quell the rhetoric, it has sparked even more heated debate. In the latest edition of Introduction to US Health Policy, Donald A. Barr reviews the current structure of the American health care system, describing the historical and political contexts in which it developed and the core policy issues that continue to confront us today. Barr's comprehensive analysis explores the various organizations and institutions that make the US health care system work-or fail to work. He describes in detail the paradox of US health care-simultaneously the best in the world and one of the worst among developed countries-while introducing readers to broad cultural issues surrounding health care policy, such as access, affordability, and quality. Barr also discusses specific elements of US health care with depth and nuance, including insurance, especially Medicare and Medicaid. He scrutinizes the shift to for-profit managed care while analyzing the pharmaceutical industry, issues surrounding long-term care, the plight of the uninsured, the prevalence of medical errors, and the troublesome issue of nursing shortages. The thoroughly updated edition of this widely adopted text focuses on the Affordable Care Act. It explains the steps taken to carry out the Act, the changes to the Act based on recent Supreme Court decisions, the success of the Act in achieving the combined goals of improved access to care and constraining the costs of care, and the continuing political controversy regarding its future. Drawing on an extensive range of resources, including government reports, scholarly publications, and analyses from a range of private organizations, Introduction to US Health Policy provides scholars, policymakers, and health care providers with a comprehensive platform of ideas that is key to understanding and influencing the changes in the US health care system.

This book contributes towards EU studies and the growing discourse on law and public health. It uses the EU's governance of public health as a lens through which to explore questions of legal competence and its development through policy and concrete techniques, processes and practices, risk and security, human rights and bioethics, accountability and legitimacy, democracy and citizenship, and the nature, essence and 'future trajectory' of the European integration project. These issues are explored first by situating the EU's public health strategy within the overarching architecture of governance and subsequently by examining its operationalisation in relation to the key public health problems of cancer, HIV/AIDS and pandemic planning. The book argues that the centrality and valorisation of scientific and technical knowledge and expertise in the EU's risk-based governance means that citizen participation in decision-making is largely marginalised and underdeveloped - and that this must change if public health and the quality, accountability and legitimacy of EU governance and its regulation are to be improved. Subsequently the book goes on to argue that the legitimating discourses of ethics and human rights, and the developing notion of EU (supra-)stewardship responsibility, can help to highlight the normative dimensions of governance and its interventions in public health. These discourses and dimensions provide openings and possibilities for citizens to power 'technologies of participation' and contribute important supplementary knowledge to decision-making.

'European Union Health Law and Policy' is now a meaningful field of study. This monograph elaborates that field through the lens of five important themes. The themes (or orientations) of European Union health law and policy are consumerism; protection of (human) rights; risk regulation; interactions between equality, solidarity and competition; and globalism. The book explores interactions between law, policy and 'governance' in the creation, elaboration, application and development of European Union health law and policy through case studies in key substantive areas, such as the regulation of health research, access of patients to high quality care, health care professional regulation, organisation and funding of health care services, and public health. As European Union health law and policy forms a crucial context within which national health law and policy is developed, the book is essential reading for anyone interested in health law or policy in any EU Member State.

Food contact materials such as packaging, storage containers and processing surfaces can pose a substantial hazard to both food manufacturer and consumer due to the migration of chemicals or other substances from the material to the food, which can cause tainting of flavours and other sensory characteristics, or even illness. This book reviews the main materials used for food contact in terms of the global legislation in place to ensure their safe and effective use. Part One provides an overview of food contact legislation issues such as chemical migration and compliance testing. Part Two looks in detail at the legislation for specific food contact materials and their advantages, hazards and use in industry.

This collection of essays looks at the role the European Union could and should play in promoting healthier lifestyle, in light of the moral, philosophical, legal and political challenges associated with the regulation of individual choices. By tackling the main non-communicable diseases (NCD) risk factors (tobacco consumption, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity), the contributors endeavour to identify common themes and determine whether and, if so, to what extent the lessons learned in relation to each area of EU intervention could be transposed to the others. By focusing on the European Union legal order, the book highlights both the opportunities that legal instruments offer for NCD prevention and control agenda in Europe, as well as the constraints that the law imposes on policy-makers.

Cet ouvrage grand public presente le debat religieux, medical, social et juridique chez les juifs, les chretiens et les musulmans autour de la circon-cision masculine et feminine. Si aujourd'hui la circoncision feminine fait l'objet d'une campagne nationale et internationale visant a l'interdire, la circoncision masculine est acceptee et rares sont ceux qui osent la critiquer. On estime, a tort, qu'elle est moins grave que la circoncision feminine, voire benefique pour la sante. L'auteur denonce ce mythe entretenu par les Nations Unies et l'Organisation mondiale de la sante. Il demontre que la distinction entre la circoncision masculine et feminine est illusoire, toutes deux etant une violation flagrante de l'integrite physique que rien ne justifie. Cette distinction est la raison principale de l'echec de la campagne contre la circoncision feminine. On ne peut garantir le droit a l'integrite physique de la fille si on nie ce droit a son frere. L'auteur Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh: Chretien d'origine palestinienne. Citoyen suisse. Docteur en droit. Habilite a diriger des recherches (HDR). Professeur des universites (CNU-France). Responsable du droit arabe et musulman a l'Institut suisse de droit compare (1980-2009). Professeur invite dans differentes universites en France, en Italie et en Suisse. Directeur du Centre de droit arabe et musulman. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages dont une traduction francaise, italienne et anglaise du Coran.

Cet ouvrage detaille presente le debat religieux, medical, social et juridique chez les juifs, les chretiens et les musulmans autour de la circoncision masculine et feminine. Si aujourd'hui la circoncision feminine fait l'objet d'une campagne nationale et internationale visant a l'interdire, la circoncision masculine est acceptee et rares sont ceux qui osent la critiquer. On estime, a tort, qu'elle est moins grave que la circoncision feminine, voire benefique pour la sante. L'auteur denonce ce mythe entretenu par les Nations Unies et l'Organisation mondiale de la sante. Il demontre que la distinction entre la circoncision masculine et feminine est illusoire, toutes deux etant une violation flagrante de l'integrite physique que rien ne justifie. Cette distinction est la raison principale de l'echec de la campagne contre la circoncision feminine. On ne peut garantir le droit a l'integrite physique de la fille si on nie ce droit a son frere. L'auteur Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh: Chretien d'origine palestinienne. Citoyen suisse. Docteur en droit. Habilite a diriger des recherches (HDR). Professeur des universites (CNU-France). Responsable du droit arabe et musulman a l'Institut suisse de droit compare (1980-2009). Professeur invite dans differentes universites en France, en Italie et en Suisse. Directeur du Centre de droit arabe et musulman. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages dont une traduction francaise, italienne et anglaise du Coran.

This book in Arabic, available also in French and in English, foreworded by Dr. Nawal El-Saadawi, presents the religious, medical, social and legal debate among Jews, Christians and Muslims around male and female circumcision. If female circumcision today is the subject of a national and international campaign to ban it, male circumcision is accepted and few would dare criticize it. It is estimated wrongly less serious than female circumcision, or with health benefits. The author criticizes this myth maintained by the United Nations and the World Health Organization. He demonstrates that the distinction between male and female circumcision is illusory, both being an unjustifiable flagrant violation of bodily integrity. This distinction is the main reason for the failure of the campaign against female circumcision. We cannot guarantee the right to physical integrity of the girl if we deny this right to his brother. The Author Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh. Christian of Palestinian origin. Swiss citizen. Doctor in law. Habilitated to direct researches. Professor of universities (CNU-France). Responsible for Arab and Islamic Law at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (1980-2009). Visiting professor in different French, Italian and Swiss universities. Director of the Centre of Arab and Islamic Law. Author of many books, including a French, English and Italian translation of the Koran.

John Coggon argues that the important question for analysts in the fields of public health law and ethics is 'what makes health public?' He offers a conceptual and analytic scrutiny of the salient issues raised by this question, outlines the concepts entailed in, or denoted by, the term 'public health' and argues why and how normative analyses in public health are inquiries in political theory. The arguments expose and explain the political claims inherent in key works in public health ethics. Coggon then develops and defends a particular understanding of political liberalism, describing its implications for critical study of public health policies and practices. Covering important works from legal, moral, and political theory, public health, public health law and ethics, and bioethics, this is a foundational text for scholars, practitioners and policy bodies interested in freedoms, rights and responsibilities relating to health.

That America's natural environment has been degraded and despoiled over the past 25 years is beyond dispute. Nor has there been any shortage of reasons why-short-sighted politicians, a society built on over-consumption, and the dramatic weakening of environmental regulations. In Retaking Rationality, Richard L. Revesz and Michael A. Livermore argue convincingly that one of the least understood-and most important-causes of our failure to protect the environment has been a misguided rejection of reason. The authors show that environmentalists, labor unions, and other progressive groups have declined to participate in the key governmental proceedings concerning the cost-benefit analysis of federal regulations. As a result of this vacuum, industry groups have captured cost-benefit analysis and used it to further their anti-regulatory ends. Beginning in 1981, the federal Office of Management and Budget and the federal courts have used cost-benefit analysis extensively to determine which environmental, health, and safety regulations are approved and which are sent back to the drawing board. The resulting imbalance in political participation has profoundly affected the nation's regulatory and legal landscape. But Revesz and Livermore contend that economic analysis of regulations is necessary and that it needn't conflict with-and can in fact support-a more compassionate approach to environmental policy. Indeed, they show that we cannot give up on rationality if we truly want to protect our natural environment. Retaking Rationality makes clear that by embracing and reforming cost-benefit analysis, and by joining reason and compassion, progressive groups can help enact strong environmental and public health regulation.

This is the first comprehensive analysis of the European Union law of food regulation. It details the way in which EU law impacts upon the production and sale of food throughout the Union. It examines the legal protection accorded to the free movement of food within the EU, discussing those circumstances in which Member States may derogate from this principle, in particular where this is done to protect human health or safeguard consumer interests. Chapter four discusses and places in context the international trade law influences on EU food law. Chapter five describes EU responses to recent food safety crises - avian influenza and BSE. The book also deals with issues such as nutrition law and policy, obesity, GMOs, organic food, animal welfare and food naming and labelling. This book offers an account of the historical, political, sociological and jurisprudential context of European Union food law. The author, who is an academic and consultant in this area, translates the legal and scientific complexities of food law into a lucid and compelling narrative. The resulting work will also prove an indispensable guide to the practitioner.

What responsibilities, if any, do we have towards our genetic offspring, before or after birth and perhaps even before creation, merely by virtue of the genetic link? What claims, if any, arise from the mere genetic parental relation? Should society through its legal arrangements allow 'fatherless' or 'motherless' children to be born, as the current law on medically assisted reproduction involving gamete donation in some legal systems does? Does the possibility of establishing genetic parentage with practical certainty necessitate reform of current legal regimes of parenthood? And what limits, if any, should we set on parental procreative choices in the interests of future children, particularly with regard to genetic engineering and related techniques? These are the questions explored in this book by some of the foremost legal, bioethical and biomedical thinkers. Assembled with a view to assisting the reader to reflect critically on the ongoing social experiment which medically assisted reproduction is today, the essays in this collection highlight what are - and what else might in the nearby future become - possible reproductive options and respond to the difficulties we encounter in assessing these practices and possibilities from our traditional ethical vantage points. Contributions by: Andrew Bainham, Thomas Baldwin, Lisa Bortolotti, John Harris, Martin H. Johnson, Judith Masson, Martin Richards, Alison Shaw, Sally Sheldon, Bonnie Steinbock and Mary Warnock.

En este libro la Dra. Georgina Chan Perdomo y su hija Melisa Perdomo Roy exploran lo que el mundo cientifico recomienda para prevenir las causas principales de muerte en el nacimiento de este milenio: Infartos Cardiacos, Infartos Cerebrales., SIDA/VIH, Cancer y Enfermedades Infecciosas. Hace 3,500 anos, se le dieron cinco libros de leyes, La Tora, a un grupo de esclavos perseguidos, para que aprendieran como sobrevivir. En estas primitivas escrituras, podemos encontrar consejos que si los seguimos, previenen o retrazan las cinco causas de muerte mas comun en el presente. Estos escogidos debian compartir esa informacion con el resto de la humanidad. Las similitudes entre las guias de Las Organizaciones Mundial de la Salud del siglo XXI y las antiguas leyes de La Tora son impresionantes. Ellas fueron dadas como Leyes, pero en realidad son una reflexion del amor del Creador por su creacion, la humanidad, para que pudieramos vivir largas vida llenos de felicidad y salud. Que mas tienen Las Escrituras Sagradas que nos pueden ayudar hoy en dia? Discutimos al final del libro el impacto que tuvieron Las Palabras de Dios no solo en nuestra vida fisica sino tambien espiritual.