SciDev.Net

"Ruth Macklin … has produced a very readable overview and analysis of the main issues in one of the most acrimonious international debates the field of ethics has seen in recent times. Unlike the excited bickering about stem cell research and reproductive cloning, this debate affects the lives of real people and is quite unlike those interminable debates about the moral standing of accumulations of a few hundred cells that some people still misleadingly call 'persons'… I found the discussion of human rights concepts tremendously valuable, and indeed it made me rethink long held views on the usefulness of deploying arguments that are based on human rights. As an easily digested overview this book could well become the standard textbook for researchers and students in postgraduate courses in biomedical ethics. Also relevant is Macklin's discussion of the difficult issues of funding research into neglected diseases and the impact of this issue on the debate on standards of care."

Link to British Medical Journal book review

Price: US$42.59, £22.99