Science in the Service of Human Rights

Richard Pierre Claude

ISBN 10: 0812221923 / ISBN 13: 9780812221923

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011

About this Item

Science in the Service of Human Rights presents a framework for debate on controversial questions surrounding scientific freedom and responsibility by illuminating the many critical points of intersection between human rights and science. Series: Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights. Num Pages: 280 pages, 10 illus. BIC Classification: JPVH; PDR. Category: (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 229 x 152 x 23. Weight in Grams: 431. . 2011. Illustrated. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780812221923

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Science in the Service of Human Rights
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0812221923
• ISBN 13: 9780812221923
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Issues that mix science and politics present some of today's most daunting ethical questions. Did China violate the human rights of prisoners in 2001 by harvesting their kidneys and other organs without their formal consent? Do the victims of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa have the right to effective pharmaceutical treatments that are beyond their financial reach? Have incautious steps toward human cloning trodden dangerously close to the revival of eugenics? Science in the Service of Human Rights presents a new framework for debate on such controversial questions surrounding scientific freedom and responsibility by illuminating the many critical points of intersection between human rights and science.

In the wake of the horrors of the Nazi engineers' grotesque experiments and the devastating advent of the atom bomb, the architects of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sought to structure new world arrangements where those in power would be bridled by rational principles favoring peace. Though UN-formulated norms have slowly matured to the status of binding international law, the fragmentation of knowledge in modern society is such that few scientists know about the existence and content of the related UN declarations and covenants or their implications.

Richard Pierre Claude's book redresses this lack and satisfies curriculum development aiming to integrate human rights standards into the humanities, law, public health, and the social and physical sciences. It offers a systematic and much-needed clarification of the origins and meanings of everyone's right to enjoy the benefits of the advancements of science.

About the Author

The late Richard Pierre Claude was Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. He coedited Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.