This book analyzes the debate surrounding cultural diversity and its implications for ethics. If ethics are relative to particular cultures or societies, then it is not possible to hold that there are any fundamental human rights. The author examines the role of cultural tradition, often used as a defense against critical ethical judgments, and explores key issues in health and medicine in the context of cultural diversity: the physician-patient relationship, disclosing a diagnosis of a fatal illness, informed consent, brain death and organ transplantation, rituals surrounding birth and...

This book examines the ethical controversies that have surrounded the design and conduct of international medical research sponsored by industrialized countries or industry, and carried out in developing countries. Is it acceptable to lower the ethical standards adopted in the industrialized world when carrying out research in developing, or resource-poor, countries? Ruth Macklin concludes that double standards in medical research are ethically unacceptable.

This book examines the ethical controversies that have surrounded the design and conduct of international medical research sponsored by industrialized countries or industry, and carried out in developing countries. Is it acceptable to lower the ethical standards adopted in the industrialized world when carrying out research in developing, or resource-poor, countries? Ruth Macklin concludes that double standards in medical research are ethically unacceptable.

This is a collection of Ruth Macklin's previously published articles that appeared in scholarly journals or as chapters in books. Dr. Macklin's pioneering work in ethics and global health spans more than two decades. The articles in this volume range from a chapter in a book published in 1989 to a journal article currently in press. The essays fall into two broad categories: policy and practice, and multinational research. Topics in the first category include cultural beliefs and attitudes regarding family planning, long-acting contraception, abortion, and more broadly, policies and practices...