Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (Volume 4)

California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public

by Lawrence O. Gostin (Editor)

This incisive selection of government reports, scholarly articles, and court cases is designed to illuminate the ethical, legal, and political issues in the theory and practice of public health. A companion to the internationally acclaimed Public Health Power, Duty, Restraint, this collection encourages debate and discourse about how courts, scholars, and policy makers respond to the salient legal and ethical dilemmas. The excerpts and commentaries in the reader analyze the legal and constitutional foundations of public health, juxtaposing them with the emerging importance of public health ethics and human rights. The book offers a systematic account of public health law, ethics, and human rights in promoting the common good.

Gostin provides thoughtful commentary on the field of public health and carefully explains the meaning and importance of each selection. Scholars, legislators, and public health professionals, as well as faculty and students in schools of law, public health, medicine, nursing, government, and health administration, will benefit from the contemporary case studies covering a wide range of topics from bioterrorism to public health genetics.

Genres: Nonfiction, Law

554 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2002

About the author

Lawrence O. Gostin is Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and University Professor, Georgetown University’s highest academic rank. He directs the World Health Organization Center on National and Global Health Law and serves on the National Cancer Advisory Board.