What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics
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About this book
One of the Wall Street Journals Top Ten Books of the Year A leading expert on public bioethics advocates for a new conception of human identity in American law and policy. The natural limits of the human body make us vulnerable and therefore dependent throughout our lives on others. Yet American law and policy disregard these stubborn facts with statutes and judicial decisions that presume people to be autonomous defined by their capacity to choose. As legal scholar O. Carter Snead points out this individualistic ideology captures important truths about human freedom but it also means that we have no obligations to each other unless we actively voluntarily embrace them. Under such circumstances the neediest must rely on charitable care. When it is not forthcoming law and policy cannot adequately respond. What It Means to Be Human makes the case for a new paradigm one that better represents the gifts and challenges of being human. Inspired by the insights of Alasdair MacIntyre and Charles Taylor Snead proposes a vision of human identity and flourishing that supports those who are profoundly vulnerable and dependentchildren the disabled and the elderly. To show how such a vision would affect law and policy he addresses three complex issues in bioethics: abortion assisted reproductive technology and end-of-life decisions. Avoiding typical dichotomies of conservative-versus-liberal and secular-versus-religious Snead recasts debates over these issues and situates them within his framework of embodiment and dependence. He concludes that if the law is built on premises that reflect the fully lived reality of life it will provide support for the vulnerable including the unborn mothers families and those nearing the end of their lives. In this way he argues policy can ensure that people have the care they need in order to thrive. In this provocative and consequential book Snead rethinks how the law represents human experiences so that it might govern more wisely justly and humanely.
