Ethics and Infectious Disease

Fear of emerging diseases such as AIDS, SARS, and avian flu and current concerns about bioterrorism and antibiotic resistance have pushed the issue of infectious disease to the center of public consciousness. Yet the subject has thus far been neglected by the discipline of bioethics. This timely collection corrects this omission, exploring a wide range of ethical issues arising in contexts involving contagion. Authored by prominent figures, the papers explore ethical issues associated with quarantine, vaccination policy, pandemic planning, biodefense, wildlife disease, medication practice, medical workers duties to treat patients with dangerous contagious diseases, health care in developing countries, and numerous additional topics.

All royalties from this book will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Preface: Michael J. Selgelid, Margaret P. Battin and Charles B. Smith.

Introduction: Michael J. Selgelid, Margaret P. Battin and Charles B. Smith.

PART I: BIOETHICS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE.

1. Ethics and Infectious Disease: Michael J. Selgelid.

2. Are There Characteristics of Infectious Diseases That Raise Special Ethical Issues?: Charles B. Smith, Margaret P. Battin, Jay A. Jacobson, Leslie P. Francis, Jeffrey R. Botkin, Emily P. Asplund, Gretchen J. Domek and Beverly Hawkins.

3. How Infectious Diseases Got Left Out and What This Omission Might Have Meant for Bioethics: Leslie P. Francis, Margaret P. Battin, Jay A. Jacobson,.

Charles B. Smith and Jeffrey R. Botkin.

PART II: ETHICS AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE CONTROL.

4. Individual Freedom or Collective Welfare? An Analysis of Quarantine as a Response to Global Infectious Disease: Evan S. Michelson.

5. Obligatory Precautions Against Infection: Marcel Verweij.

6. Reflecting on Ethical and Legal Issues in Wildlife Disease: Hamish McCallum and Barbara Ann Hocking.

7. Preparing for an Influenza Pandemic: Ethical Issues: Jaro Kotalik.

8. Addressing the Public Health Problem of Hepatitis C: Jason P. Lott and Julian Savulescu.

9. Tuberculosis, Public Health, and Civil Liberties: Ronald Bayer and Laurence Dupuis.

PART III: DILEMMAS IN TREATMENT.

10. Duty to Treat or Right to Refuse?: Norman Daniels.

11. Diminishing Returns? Risk and the Duty to Care in the SARS Epidemic: Lynette Reid.

12. Medication Practice and Feminist Thought: A Theoretical and Ethical Response to Adherence in HIV/AIDS: Lauren M. Broyles, Alison M. Colbert and Judith A. Erlen.

13. Anti–Infective Therapy at End of Life: Ethical Decision–Making in Hospice–Eligible Patients: Paul J. Ford, Thomas G. Fraser, Mellar P. Davis and Eric Kodish.

PART IV: VACCINATION POLICY.

14. Are Compulsory Immunisation and Incentives to Immunise Effective Ways to Achieve Herd Immunity in Europe?: Nicola E. Moran, Darren Shickle, Christian Munthe, Kris Dierickx, Carlo Petrini, Franz Piribauer, Katarzyna Czabanowska, Hilary Cowley, Sergi Blancafort and Elisabeth Petsetakis.

15. Public Communication, Risk Perception, and the viability of Preventive vaccination Against Communicable Diseases: Thomas May.

16. Some Ethical Issues Arising from Polio Eradication Programmes in India: Yash Paul and Angus Dawson.

PART V: DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND GLOBAL HEALTH.

17. Rethinking Medical Ethics: A view from Below: Paul Farmer and Nicole Gastineau Campos.

18. Human Rights and Global Health: A Research Program: Thomas Pogge.

19. Social values Embedded in Health Systems: Infectious Disease in Mexico and Cuba: Tim Anderson.

PART VI: SECURITY AND BIOTERRORISM.

20. Securitizing Infectious Diseases: Christian Enemark.

21. The Ethics of Biodefense: Nicholas B. King.

22. Bioethics and Bioterrorism: George J. Annas.

Notes on Contributors.

Index.

Michael J. Selgelid is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) at the Australian National University in Canberra. He was previously the Sesquicentenary Lecturer in Bioethics at the University of Sydney and a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Margaret P. Battin is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Ethics, at the University of Utah. The author of prize–winning short stories and recipient of the University of Utah′s Distinguished Research Award, she has authored, edited, or co–edited twelve books on topics including physician–assisted suicide, euthanasia, age–rationing of health care, professional ethics, organized religion, and aesthetics.

Charles B. Smith, MD, is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, having previously served as Professor and Associate Dean. He served as Chief Medical Officer of the Veteran s Administration Hospital in Seattle. He has held positions as Associate Chairman, Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

"Altogether this set of essays would make compelling reading for any public–health practitioner or clinician interested in infectious diseases. I can give it unreserved recommendation.... The authors are to be commended for their attention to this topic and for inviting some of the best minds in bioethics to address some of the most difficult, but neglected, ethical issues in public health and medicine." Bulletin of the World Health Organisation