Martha Albertson Fineman (Emory University School of Law) has posted Vulnerability in Law and Bioethics on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This piece was published as “Vulnerability in Law and Bioethics,” 30 Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 52 (2020).
Both law and bioethics are disciplines concerned with establishing principles, norms, and values to govern those subjects and situations within their jurisdictions. The rules that emerge from discussions about necessary ethical principles must be considered just, and must also clearly define appropriate institutional practices and individual behavior.
The primary subject of both law and bioethics is the human being. While the social and professional roles of the lawyer (and/or legislator and judge) and the bioethicists may be different, both professions are concerned with human beings and the societies in which they live. Therefore, the fundamental question for both disciplines has to be: “What does it mean to be human?” This question must be answered before a determination of what is just can be made in defining professional ethics and responsibility.
