Defining Harm: Religious Freedom and the Limits of the Law (Law and Society) - Softcover

Beaman, Lori G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774814306 ISBN 13: 9780774814300

Publisher: UBC Press, 2008

Synopsis

Offers a genealogy of religious freedom in a social climate of risk and fear. This book also presents the story of Bethany Hughes, a member of the Jehovah's Witness, and her legal battle to define the parameters of her medical treatment.

About this title

About the Author:

Lori G. Beaman is the Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada at the University of Ottawa.

Review:

In the past several years religion has increasingly become an integral component of discussions about diversity and multiculturalism in Canada. Of particular concern has been the formulation of limits on religious freedom. Defining Harm explores the ways in which religion and religious freedom are conceptualized and regulated in a cultural context of fear of the “other” and religious “extremism.”

Drawing from literature on risk society, governance, feminist legal theory, and religious rights, Lori Beaman looks at the case of Jehovah’s Witness Bethany Hughes who was denied her right to refuse treatment on the basis of her religious conviction. The B.H. case, as it was known in the courts, reflects a particular moment in the socio-legal treatment of religious freedom and reveals the specific intersection of religious, medical, legal, and other discourses in the governance of the religious citizen.

A powerful examination of the governance of a religious citizen and of the limits of religious freedom, this book demonstrates that the stakes in debates on religious freedom are not just about beliefs and practices but also have implications for the construction of citizenship in a diverse nation.

About this edition

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0774814306
• ISBN 13: 9780774814300
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200