Abstract
Article 8 of the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights requires respect for human vulnerability and personal integrity – particularly for those who are especially vulnerable. While neither term is defined in the Article, arguably most people have an intuitive understanding of what is meant by them, and indeed in one form or another they appear time and again in international declarations, professional guidelines, and the wealth of literature surrounding the individual or group relationship with healthcare and its associated technical and technological advances. By examining the meaning of the Article in three settings – the routine clinical intervention, the research setting, and medical advances – its core elements of preventing exploitation of those who are disadvantaged because of health, social status, sex, age, and so on are clarified and discussed. In this way, and by use of concrete examples, it is possible to flesh out both the content of the Article and the obligations that it imposes of respect, nondiscrimination, and solidarity.
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McLean, S.A.M. (2014). Respect for Human Vulnerability and Personal Integrity. In: ten Have, H., Gordijn, B. (eds) Handbook of Global Bioethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2512-6_71
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2512-6_71
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