Bioethics Perspectives and Dilemmas: Before to Beyond Life

by Kusum

ISBN: 9789354618857
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Imprint : Regency Publications
Year : 2024
Price : Rs. 10595.00
Biblio : 302p

About The Book

The higher one soars on the wings of science, the worse our feet seem to get entangled in the wires (Unknown, New Yorker, Feb. 7, 1931). May not be the whole truth, but is not entirely untrue either. The ingenuity of the human brain seems to know no bounds. This is more than indicated by the marvels of new medical procedures and technologies which have astonished and baffled the world with a myriad of issues and apprehensions. Bioethics: Perspectives and Dilemmas is a collection of articles on new medical procedures and their repercussions, written over a span of twenty years when many of the issues were almost unknown or at an embryonic stage. The focus is on the social, legal and ethical implications of these procedures. Many of these procedures and technologies have a potential of misuse. In the Indian context especially their import without regard to the socio-cultural conditions needs closer scrutiny. As aptly remarked by Herbert Spencer, "only when genius is married to science, can the highest results be produced" (Education ch. 1). Add to this, the need for awareness, conscientiousness and legal regulation.

Table of Contents

Introduction V SECTION I: ASSISTED REPRODUCTION 1. Artificial insemination and the law 3 2. Wombs to-let 20 3. Manufactured children: Legitimacy and rights 24 4. Whose child is it anyway? 30 5. Will the real mother please stand up! 6. Artificial insemination Act: 1995 37 7. Surrogate motherhood: Implications and issues 40 SECTION II: ELECTIVE BIRTHS 8. Against female dignity 63 9. Amniocentesis and gender discrimination in India 67 10. [Time] elective births 88 SECTION III: FOETAL RESEARCH/PROTECTION 11. Trading in foetuses 93 12. Of foetal rights 95 13. A mother's prerogative? 99 14. A medico-legal dilemma 103 15. Protecting jobs and the unborn child 107 SECTION IV: ABORTION/COMPULSORY STERILISATION 16. To do or not to do 113 17. Abortion: Who has a say ? 117 18. Womb removal: Plight of mentally retarded 120 SECTION V: DAMAGES FOR WRONGFUL BIRTHS 19. Failure of FP devices: Award of damages 127 20. Is compensation for 'wrongful birth' morally right? 130 21. The burden of an unwanted child 133 SECTION VI: SEXUAL IDENTITY ABERRATIONS/CONFLICTS AND TRANS-SEXUALISM 22. Change of sex by choice: Legal implications 139 23. Legal implications of sex change surgery 142 24. Hermaphrodite marriage 164 25. Sex of the athlete 168 26. M.P. cops 'marriage' 171 SECTION VII: DEATH AND DYING 27. Is artificial life better than natural death 177 28, Suicide vs Law 181 29. Living will statutes 184 30. Suicide: Sans deterrence 187 31. Suicide: A judicial retreat? 191 32. For a humane approach to suicide 194 SECTION VIII: TRADING IN ORGANS/CORPSE 33. Dead serve the living 199 34. Trading in corpse 202 35. Condemned prisoners: Right to donate organs 205 36. Living beyond life 210 37. Organ transplantation: Need for law 215 38. Supply of human organs for transplantation 219 39. Organ donation: Curbing the racket 240 40. Vast and Vague: Transplantation of human organs Act, 1994 243 APPENDICES I. The Delhi artificial insemination (Human) Act, 1995 249 II. The pre-natal diagnostic techniques (regulation and prevention of misuse) Act, 1994 254 III. The transplantation of human organs Act, 1994 273