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The increasing emergence, re-emergence, and spread of deadly
infectious diseases which pose health, economic, security and
ethical challenges for states and people around the world, has
given rise to an important global debate. The actual or potential
burden of infectious diseases is sometimes so great that
governments treat them as threats to national security. However,
such treatment potentially increases the risk that emergency
disease-control measures will be ineffective, counterproductive
and/or unjust. Research on ethical issues associated with
infectious disease is a relatively new and rapidly growing area of
academic inquiry, as is research on infectious diseases within the
field of security studies. This volume incorporates ethical and
security perspectives, thus furthering research in both fields. Its
unique focus on the intersection of ethical and security dimensions
will, furthermore, generate fresh insights on how governments
should respond to infectious disease challenges. Readers should
include professionals and scholars working in infectious disease,
epidemiology, public health, health law, health economics, public
policy, bioethics, medical humanities, health and human rights,
social/political philosophy, security studies, and international
politics.
What Is the Dual-Use Dilemma? The so-called "dual-use dilemma"
arises in the context of research in the biological and other
sciences as a consequence of the fact that one and the same piece
of sci- tific research sometimes has the potential to be used for
harm as well as for good. A dual-use dilemma is an ethical dilemma,
and an ethical dilemma for the researcher (and for those who have
the power or authority to assist or impede the researcher's work,
e. g. , governments). It is an ethical dilemma since it is about
promoting good in the context of the potential for also causing
harm, e. g. , the p- motion of health in the context of providing
the wherewithal for the killing of in- cents. It is an ethical
dilemma for the researcher not because he or she is aiming at
anything other than a good outcome; typically, the researcher
intends no harm, but only good. Rather, the dilemma arises for the
researcher because of the potential actions of others. Malevolent
non-researchers might steal dangerous biological agents produced by
the researcher; alternatively, other researchers-or at least their
governments or leadership-might use the results of the original
researcher's work for malevolent purposes. The malevolent purposes
in question include bioterrorism, biowarfare and blackmail for
financial gain.
This open access book provides an extensive review of ethical and
regulatory issues related to human infection challenge studies,
with a particular focus on the expansion of this type of research
into endemic settings and/or low- and middle-income countries
(LMICs). Human challenge studies (HCS) involve the intentional
infection of research participants, and this type of research is
rapidly increasing in frequency worldwide. HCS are widely
considered to be an especially promising approach to vaccine
development, including for pathogens endemic to LMICs. However,
challenge studies are sometimes controversial and raise complex
ethical issues, some of which are especially salient in endemic
and/or LMIC settings. Informed by qualitative interviews with
experts in infectious diseases and bioethics, this book highlights
areas of ethical consensus and controversy concerning this kind of
research. As the first volume to focus on ethical issues associated
with human challenge studies, it sets the agenda for further work
in this important area of global health research; contributes to
current debates in research ethics; and aims to inform regulatory
policy and research practice. Insofar as it focuses on HCS in
(endemic) settings where diseases are present and/or widespread,
much of the analysis provided here is directly relevant to HCS
involving pandemic diseases including COVID19.
Health Rights is a multidisciplinary collection of seminal papers
examining ethical, legal, and empirical questions regarding the
human right to health or health care. The volume discusses what
obligations health rights entail for governments and other actors,
how they relate to and potentially conflict with other rights and
values, and how cultural diversity bears on the formulation and
implementation of health rights. The paramount importance of such
questions is illustrated, among other things, by the catastrophic
health situation in developing countries and current debates about
the TRIPS Agreement and health care reform in the United States.
The volume is divided into five main parts which focus on
philosophical questions about the bases for the right to health or
health care; links between health and human rights; global
bioethics and public health ethics; intellectual property rights in
pharmaceuticals; and finally health rights issues arising in
specific contexts such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and gender.
Emergencies are extreme events which threaten to cause massive
disruption to society and negatively affect the physical and
psychological well-being of its members. They raise important
practical and theoretical questions about how we should treat each
other in times of 'crisis'. The articles selected for this volume
focus on the nature and significance of emergencies; ethical issues
in emergency public policy and law; war, terrorism and supreme
emergencies; and public health and humanitarian emergencies.
Together they demonstrate the normative implications of emergencies
and provide multi-disciplinary perspectives on the ethics of
emergency response.
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