Health policies v rights

A leading bioethicist says Unesco's Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights heralds disaster for standard medical research routines. Udo Schuklenk, head of Glasgow Caledonian University's Centre for Ethics in Public Policy and Corporate Governance, has co-written an editorial in Developing World Ethics , saying the declaration in effect stops member states from pursuing public health policies that might override individual liberties. He cites measures such as quarantining patients, as was successfully done in China to contain the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.