Super Soldiers: The Ethical, Legal and Operational Implications (Part 2)

This is the second chapter of two on military human enhancement. In the first chapter, the authors outlined past and present efforts aimed at enhancing the minds and bodies of our warfighters with the broader goal of creating the “super soldiers” of tomorrow, all before exploring a number of distinctions—natural vs. artificial, external vs. internal, enhancement vs. therapy, enhancement vs. disenhancement, and enhancement vs. engineering—that are critical to the definition of military human enhancement and understanding the problems it poses. The chapter then advanced a working definition of enhancement as efforts that aim to “improve performance, appearance, or capability besides what is necessary to achieve, sustain, or restore health.” It then discussed a number of variables that must be taken into consideration when applying this definition in a military context. In this second chapter, drawing on that definition and some of the controversies already mentioned, the authors set out the relevant ethical, legal, and operational challenges posed by military enhancement. They begin by considering some of the implications for international humanitarian law and then shift to US domestic law. Following that, the authors examine military human enhancement from a virtue ethics approach, and finally outline some potential consequences for military operations more generally

Legal Implications of Clinical Investigation

There is an increasing concern among the members of the medical profession with legal rights, obligations and limitations affecting clinical investigation. This is understandable in light of the virtual explosion of clinical investigation within medical science. Clinical investigation is the systematic collection, evaluation and reporting, by or under the supervision of physicians, of data about other human beings for the purpose of advancing scientific medical knowledge. Thus it includes neither investigation relating to animals (even though such investigation may also advance scientific medical knowledge), nor investigation of human beings for purposes unrelated to medical science, nor the trial of unproven procedures in the treatment of patients unless this is also a part of a systematic program of clinical investigation. Nevertheless, clinical investigation need not occur within the physician-patient relationship, which arises when a person seeks and a physician undertakes to furnish medical diagnosis or treatment. For example, a person who volunteers as a subject of clinical investigation does not have a physician-patient relationship with a physician who does not undertake to furnish him any medical benefit

The Whitney R. Harris Third Reich Collection : materials added to the collection, 1999-June 30, 2008

Bibliography of items added to the Whitney R. Harris Third Reich Collection funded by Whitney R. Harris

RB 005 Guide to McGovern Collection on the History of Medicine

The McGovern Collection contains over 5,500 titles focused on the development of the medical specialties in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth. There are significant sections on pediatrics, allergy and cardiology. The collection emphasis has been American Imprints and English language materials. There are a small number of titles in French or German from the eighteenth century. See more at RB 005