I Book Review: Reproductive Health and Human Rights

Published date01 March 2005
DOI10.1177/016934410502300111
Date01 March 2005
Subject MatterPart D: DocumentationI Book Review
154
Rebecca J. Cook, Bernard M. Dickens and Mahnoud F. Fathalla,
Reproductive
Health and Human Rights
, Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press, New
York/Oxford, 2003, 554 p., ISBN 0-19-924132-5 and 0-19-924133-3 (pbk.)*
As the introduction puts it, this book aims to widen the understanding of the issues
involved in reproductive and sexual ill health. It seeks to address everyone involved
in reproductive health matters, including health care providers, health policy
makers, and lawyers (p. 3). Accordingly, the book informs the reader concerning the
ethical and legal principles at stake in the field of reproductive health, concerning
reproductive health laws and relevant human rights, and concerning the relevant
medical and social aspects of reproductive health. The authors (two lawyers and a
gynaecologist) by combining their different areas of expertise have succeeded in
producing a useful and comprehensive book for all who are involved or interested in
reproductive health matters. It enables ethicists and lawyers to increase their
knowledge of the more practical aspects of reproductive health, while allowing
health care providers and health activists a closer look at the law which regulates
their field of action.
Reproductive health as an international human rights issue is a fairly recent
concept. The first definition of reproductive health at the international level was
adopted at the United Nations’ International Conference on Population and
Development held at Cairo in 1994. The definition was further developed during
the Fourth World Conference of Women (Beijing 1995). According to the
definition, reproductive health among other things implies ‘the right to be
informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of
family planning of [men and women’s] choice, (...) and the right of access to
appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through
pregnancy and childbirth...’
1
The integrated approach taken in this book provides
an excellent follow-up to the definitions and principles adopted during the Cairo
process.
The book consists of three parts. Part 1 discusses the medical, ethical and legal
principles that apply with regard to reproductive health. In the second part of the
book, a shift is made away from theory to practice to discuss some 15 case studies.
The final part of the book provides a considerable amount of reproductive health
data and relevant human rights documents.
Chapter 4 of Part 1 rather exceeds the book’s main theme by extensively
discussing medical ethics or bioethics and in particular its origins and role. However,
this may prove quite useful for lawyers, who may lack the necessary understanding of
bioethics and may underestimate the importance of bioethics as a source of
(reproductive health) law, and it may cause them to recognise the ethical dimension
of law. After all, according to the authors, ‘Law frames the setting within which
ethical choices may be practically exercised, but ethics frames the limits within which
law is voluntarily obeyed and respected as an expression of the values and aspirations
of the society in which it applies’ (p. 89).
Documentation
* Brigit Toebes is the author of a dissertation on the right to health and has worked as a legislative
advisor at the Netherlands Council of State. She is currently based in Scotland from where she
works as an independent consultant.
1
UN, Platform for Action and Beijing Declaration. Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 4-
5 September 1995, UN, New York, 1995, para. 94.

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT