Includes bibliographical references and index.

Front Matter -- Preliminary Material / Editor: Cosimo Marco Mazzoni -- Bioethics Needs Legal Regulation / Cosimo Marco Mazzoni -- An International Overview of Developments in Certain Areas, 1984–1994 / Sev S. Fluss -- From Bioethics to Biolaw / Linda Nielsen -- Towards a Law for Bioethics / Paolo Zatti -- What Rules for Procreation? / Alexander M. Capron -- What Rules for Procreation? / Christian Byk -- What Rules Should Govern Artificial Insemination? / Francesco D. Busnelli -- Licensing Parenthood and Regulating Reproduction: Towards Consensus? / Derek Morgan -- Bioethics and Law / Dorothy Nelkin -- Bioethics Markets and Morals: The Case of Biotechnological Patents / Marco Ricolfi -- Markets for Human Organs / Henry Hansmann -- Marketing of Human Organs? / Erwin Bernat -- Gift Ethics and Organ Donation / Cosimo Marco Mazzoni -- The Right to Die / Ian Kennedy -- Euthanasia: Changes in Medicine and in Legal Regulation / Carlo Alberto Defanti -- The Right to Die and The Penal Code: The Arguments of a Problematic Relationship / Fausto Giunta -- Self-determination and Living Wills / Pietro Rescigno -- Back Matter -- Index / Editor: Cosimo Marco Mazzoni.

A comparative analysis of the legislation in the field of bioethics in several Western countries, especially in European Union member states, shows that there is a profound difference both in legislative policies and in the ethical principles enshrined by the laws. Over the past few years bioethics, as a discipline, has attempted to elaborate individual and collective behavioural codes in several fields, but it has come up against enormous difficulties; it has not even been possible to reach a consensus between different countries on the general principles. An example of this is the recent Convention on Bioethics endorsed by the Council of Europe. The aim of the essays contained in this book is to highlight the differences between existing regulations in several countries, and to stress how necessary it is to elaborate a legal framework that could be shared by the widest range of national legislations. For there is no denying that technological advances in the fields of both biology and medicine, as well as progress in surgical treatments, mean that jurists the world over are faced with a common scientific reality. The task of the jurist must therefore be to engage in a comparative analysis so as to overcome the differences in national legislations.

English

Description based on print version record.