Infectious Diseases in the New Millennium (eBook)

This book examines the often tough questions raised by infectious diseases through essays that explore a host of legal and ethical issues. The authors also offer potential solutions in order to ensure that past errors are not repeated in response to future outbreaks. The essays touch on a number of key themes, including institutional competence, the accountability and responsibility of non-state actors, the importance of pharmaceuticals, and the move towards a rights-based approach in global health.

Readers gain insights into such important questions as follows: How can we help victims in other countries? What (if any) responsibility should be placed upon international organizations whose actions exacerbate infectious diseases? How can we ensure that pharmaceutical research helps all communities, even those who cannot afford to pay for the products?

 While broadly covering global health law, the book adopts an inter-disciplinary approach that draws on public international law, philosophy, international relations, human rights law, and healthcare economics. As such, it is a valuable resource for academic libraries, appealing to scholars and postgraduates engaged in relevant research, as well as to those engaged with global health and policy at the international level.

Dr. Mark Eccleston-Turner is a Lecturer in Law at Keele University. His research specialism is in the field of international law and infectious diseases. Within this, his research interests lie in the field of pandemic influenza preparedness, access to vaccines, the International Health Regulations, and the law of international organizations in the context of global health. In 2017, he was Visiting Fellow at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, where the majority of this text was written. He is currently an Emerging Leader in Biosecurity Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and a Centre Affiliate at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University.

Dr. Iain Brassington received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Birmingham in 2003; his thesis was an attempt to introduce themes from Heidegger into moral philosophy. Before that, he received an M.Sc. with Distinction in Health Care Ethics from Birmingham (1999), and a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Hull (1998). He taught at the Centre for Professional Ethics at Keele from 2003-2006 and at Keele Medical School in 2004-2005; he has also taught in the Medical School at Birmingham in various roles between 1998 and 2003, and at the Philosophy Department at Warwick. Additionally, he had stints as a lorry driver, barman, school teacher, and as a private tutor in philosophy.