Table Of Contentmore information – www.cambridge.org/9781107008601
The Connected Self
Currently,theethicsinfrastructure–frommedicalandscientifictraining
to the scrutiny of ethics committees – focuses on trying to reform
informed consent to do a job which it is simply not capable of doing.
Consent,orchoice,isnotaneffectiveethicaltoolinpublicethicsandis
particularly problematic in the governance of genetics. Heather
Widdows suggests using alternative and additional ethical tools, and
arguesthatifindividualsaretoflourishitisnecessarytorecogniseand
respectcommunalandpublicgoodsaswellasindividualgoods.Todo
this she suggests a two-step process – the ‘ethical toolbox’. First the
harmsandgoodsoftheparticularsituationareassessedandthenappro-
priatepracticesareputinplacetoprotectgoodsandpreventharms.This
debatespeakstocoreconcernsofcontemporarypublicethicsandsug-
gestsameanstoidentifyandprioritisepublicandcommongoods.
HeatherWiddowsisaprofessorinthephilosophydepartment atthe
University of Birmingham, where she teaches moral philosophy, bio-
ethics,globalethicsandhealthandhappiness.
CambridgeBioethicsandLaw
ThisseriesofbookswasfoundedbyCambridgeUniversityPresswithAlexander
McCall Smith as its first editor in 2003. It focuses on the law’s complex and
troubledrelationshipwithmedicineacrossboththedevelopedandthedeveloping
world.Inthepasttwentyyears,wehaveseeninmanycountriesincreasingresortto
thecourts bydissatisfiedpatients and agrowing useofthecourts toattemptto
resolve intractable ethical dilemmas. At the same time, legislatures across the
world have struggled to address the questions posed by both the successes and
failuresofmodernmedicine,whileinternationalorganisationssuchastheWHO
andUNESCOnowregularlyaddressissuesofmedicallaw.
Itfollowsthatwewouldexpectethicalandpolicyquestionstobeintegraltothe
analysisofthelegalissuesdiscussedinthisseries.Theseriesrespondstothehigh
profileofmedicallawinuniversities,inlegalandmedicalpractice,aswellasin
publicandpoliticalaffairs.Weseektoreflecttheevidencethatmanymajorhealth-
relatedpolicydebatesintheUK,Europeandtheinternationalcommunityover
thepasttwodecadeshaveinvolvedastrongmedicallawdimension.Withthatin
mind,weseektoaddresshowlegalanalysismighthaveatrans-jurisdictionaland
internationalrelevance.Organretention,embryonicstemcellresearch,physician
assistedsuicideandtheallocationofresourcestofundhealthcarearebutafew
examplesamongmany.Theemphasisofthisseriesisthusonmattersofpublic
concernand/orpracticalsignificance.Welookforbooksthatcouldmakeadiffer-
ence to the development of medical law and enhance the role of medico-legal
debateinpolicycircles.Thatisnottosaythatwelackinterestintheimportant
theoreticaldimensionsofthesubject,butweaimtoensurethattheoreticaldebate
isgroundedintherealitiesofhowthelawdoesandshouldinteractwithmedicine
andhealthcare.
SeriesEditors
ProfessorMargaretBrazier,UniversityofManchester
ProfessorGraemeLaurie,UniversityofEdinburgh
ProfessorRichardAshcroft,QueenMary,UniversityofLondon
ProfessorEricM.Meslin,IndianaUniversity
MarcusRadetzki,
MarianRadetzki,
NiklasJuth,GenesandInsurance:Ethical,LegalandEconomicIssues
RuthMacklin,DoubleStandardsinMedicalResearchinDevelopingCountries
DonnaDickenson,PropertyintheBody:FeministPerspectives
MattiHäyry,
RuthChadwick,
VilhjálmurÁrnason,
GardarÁrnason,TheEthicsandGovernanceofHumanGeneticDatabases:European
Perspectives
KenMason,TheTroubledPregnancy:LegalWrongsandRightsinReproduction
DanielSperling,PosthumousInterests:LegalandEthicalPerspectives
KeithSyrett,Law,LegitimacyandtheRationingofHealthCare
AlastairMaclean,Autonomy,InformedConsentandtheLaw:ARelationalChange
CarolineMullen,TheGovernanceofGeneticInformation:WhoDecides?
DavidPrice,HumanTissueinTransplantationandResearch
MattiHäyry,RationalityandtheGeneticChallenge:MakingPeopleBetter?
MaryDonnelly,HealthcareDecision-MakingandtheLaw:Autonomy,Capacityand
theLimitsofLiberalism
Anne-MareeFarrell,DavidPriceandMuireannQuigley,OrganShortage:Ethics,
LawandPragmatism
SaraFovargue,XenotransplantationandRisk:RegulatingaDevelopingBiotechnology
John Coggon,What Makes Health Public?: A CriticalEvaluation ofMoral, Legal,
andPoliticalClaimsinPublicHealth
MarkTaylor,GeneticDataandtheLaw:ACriticalPerspectiveonPrivacyProtection
Anne-MareeFarrell,ThePoliticsofBlood:Ethics,InnovationandtheRegulationof
Risk
Stephen Smith, End-of-Life Decisions in Medical Care: Principles and Policies for
RegulatingtheDyingProcess
MichaelParker,EthicalProblemsandGeneticsPractice
WilliamW.Lowrance,Privacy,Confidentiality,andHealthResearch
Amel Alghrani, Rebecca Bennett and Suzanne Ost, Bioethics, Medicine and the
Criminal Law Volume I: The Criminal Law and Bioethical Conflict: Walking the
Tightrope
KerryLynnMacintosh,HumanCloning:FourFallaciesandTheirLegalConsequence
Heather Widdows, The Connected Self: The Ethics and Governance of the Genetic
Individual
The Connected Self
The Ethics and Governance of the Genetic
Individual
Heather Widdows
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107008601
©HeatherWiddows2013
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permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2013
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Widdows,Heather,1972–
Theconnectedself:theethicsandgovernanceofthegeneticindividual/Heather
Widdows.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences(p.182)andindex.
ISBN978-1-107-00860-1
1. Medicalethics. 2. Humangenetics–Research–Moralandethical
aspects. I. Title.
R725.5.W532 2013
174.208–dc23
2012023657
ISBN978-1-107-00860-1Hardback
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