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Jonathan Mann's legacy
Jonathan Mann’s legacy Health and Human Rights: a reader Edited by Jonathan M Mann, Sofia Grushkin, Michael A Grodin, George J Annas. New York:Routledge. 1999. Pp 505. £16.99. ISBN 0-415-92102-3.
H
ealth and Human Rights: a reader is probably the last publication to appear under the name of the late Jonathan Mann. The first director of the World Health Organization’s Global Program on AIDS and the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights at Harvard, Mann and his wife Mary-Lou Clements Mann were among the 229 people who perished last year when Swissair Flight 111 crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia. Health and Human Rights is an anthology of essays edited by Mann together with Sofia Grushkin, who is director of the Human Rights Program at Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard, and Michael Grodin and George Annas of Boston Unive rs i t y ’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine. The book is a comprehensive compilation of writings that encompass a spectrum of human-rights issues ranging from gene mapping to genocide. The touchstones for this volume are the 1946 Nuremberg Code on Human
Experimentation and the 1948 U n i ve rsal Declaration of Human Rights. Some essays address the subject in an abstract conceptual context within the framework of “public health”. Others focus on specific examples of challenges to human rights such as research on genetic variation, HIV research in developing countries, health consequences of industrial development, gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnic “cleansing”. Other essays consider medical humanitarianism as exemplified by the organisations Médecins sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde, This is a rich and varied collection ranging from cogent exegeses on ethnic cleansing and female genital mutilation to scholary dissertations on human rights and public health. Most of the essays are powerful statements supported by impressive scholarships enhanced by the authors’ personal and professional experience. Outstanding examples are Alain Destexhe’s passionate history of medical humanitarianism entitled From Solferino to Sarajevo and Alicia Ely Yamin’s essay Ethnic Cleansing
Moby Dick for the millennium Volunteer readers are needed to take part in a 27-h marathon reading of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in London, UK, later this month. Sponsored by New York’s Brooklyn College London Summer Program, the novel will be read by British people from all walks of life, including scientists and doctors, to celebrate the millennium and the College’s strong connection with Britain. “What we particularly need are doctors because people don’t associate them with literature”, comments Saul Galin, professor of English at Brooklyn College. “They represent a group of people who are often perceived as god-like—the custodians of life and death—and often seem unapproachable and inspire respect and awe.” Galin adds that doctors “may be able to shed light on the medical condition of the crew and the diseases of that time”. The event, which starts at 1800 h (London time) on July 23, 1999, takes place at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market, Islington, London. Anyone wishing to read should contact Ann Hamilton +44 (0)181 924 5889; e-mail [email protected]
THE LANCET • Vol 354 • July 3, 1999
and Other Lies. Ely Yamin’s essay is a poignant and eloquent analysis of the application of pathology, epidemiology, and public health in the elucidation of human-rights violations as exemplified by ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. Catherine Annas’ essay on female genital mutilation (Irreversible Error) is a powerful 14-page report supported by 11 pages of documentation comprising 217 endnotes. George Annas’s writings (some co-authored with Michael Grodin) exemplify forceful credible expositions that combine mettle with careful scholarship. Two very well-written contributions bear the name of a committee and not a single author. They are; Rights Violation in the Ecuadorian Amazon from the Center for Economic and Social Rights and the eloquent Human Rights and Human Genetic Variation Research from the Committee on Human Genetic Diversity of the National Research Council. Students,researchers, and scholars in the field have much to choose from in this work, which is augmented by an excellent index and detailed bibliographies. The book’s usefulness is enhanced by publication in affordable and durable soft-cover format. With the exception of the Destexhe essay, the emphasis of the anthology is on the postwar period, with little consideration of the broad historical determinants of the period before World War II that contributed to some of the contemporary challenges in health and human rights. A deeper understanding of these contemporary challenges would be enhanced by an analysis of the historical precedents. They include the association between poverty and eugenics, the application of scientific racism, the evolution of discriminatory practices in medicine, and consideration of the relation between the state and “public health” encompassing the evolution of “population health” (or what German medicine once termed Volksgesundheit.) In sum, Health and Human Rights: a reader is a powerful tribute to the memory and spirit of Jonathan Mann’s exemplary work in the field. Perhaps Mann’s greatest posthumous legacy will be the entrenchment of human rights as a defined discipline within medicine, a discipline that this volume serves to elucidate and legitimise.
William E Seidelman University of Toronto and St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
81
H
ealth and Human Rights: a reader is probably the last publication to appear under the name of the late Jonathan Mann. The first director of the World Health Organization’s Global Program on AIDS and the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights at Harvard, Mann and his wife Mary-Lou Clements Mann were among the 229 people who perished last year when Swissair Flight 111 crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia. Health and Human Rights is an anthology of essays edited by Mann together with Sofia Grushkin, who is director of the Human Rights Program at Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard, and Michael Grodin and George Annas of Boston Unive rs i t y ’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine. The book is a comprehensive compilation of writings that encompass a spectrum of human-rights issues ranging from gene mapping to genocide. The touchstones for this volume are the 1946 Nuremberg Code on Human
Experimentation and the 1948 U n i ve rsal Declaration of Human Rights. Some essays address the subject in an abstract conceptual context within the framework of “public health”. Others focus on specific examples of challenges to human rights such as research on genetic variation, HIV research in developing countries, health consequences of industrial development, gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnic “cleansing”. Other essays consider medical humanitarianism as exemplified by the organisations Médecins sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde, This is a rich and varied collection ranging from cogent exegeses on ethnic cleansing and female genital mutilation to scholary dissertations on human rights and public health. Most of the essays are powerful statements supported by impressive scholarships enhanced by the authors’ personal and professional experience. Outstanding examples are Alain Destexhe’s passionate history of medical humanitarianism entitled From Solferino to Sarajevo and Alicia Ely Yamin’s essay Ethnic Cleansing
Moby Dick for the millennium Volunteer readers are needed to take part in a 27-h marathon reading of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in London, UK, later this month. Sponsored by New York’s Brooklyn College London Summer Program, the novel will be read by British people from all walks of life, including scientists and doctors, to celebrate the millennium and the College’s strong connection with Britain. “What we particularly need are doctors because people don’t associate them with literature”, comments Saul Galin, professor of English at Brooklyn College. “They represent a group of people who are often perceived as god-like—the custodians of life and death—and often seem unapproachable and inspire respect and awe.” Galin adds that doctors “may be able to shed light on the medical condition of the crew and the diseases of that time”. The event, which starts at 1800 h (London time) on July 23, 1999, takes place at the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market, Islington, London. Anyone wishing to read should contact Ann Hamilton +44 (0)181 924 5889; e-mail [email protected]
THE LANCET • Vol 354 • July 3, 1999
and Other Lies. Ely Yamin’s essay is a poignant and eloquent analysis of the application of pathology, epidemiology, and public health in the elucidation of human-rights violations as exemplified by ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. Catherine Annas’ essay on female genital mutilation (Irreversible Error) is a powerful 14-page report supported by 11 pages of documentation comprising 217 endnotes. George Annas’s writings (some co-authored with Michael Grodin) exemplify forceful credible expositions that combine mettle with careful scholarship. Two very well-written contributions bear the name of a committee and not a single author. They are; Rights Violation in the Ecuadorian Amazon from the Center for Economic and Social Rights and the eloquent Human Rights and Human Genetic Variation Research from the Committee on Human Genetic Diversity of the National Research Council. Students,researchers, and scholars in the field have much to choose from in this work, which is augmented by an excellent index and detailed bibliographies. The book’s usefulness is enhanced by publication in affordable and durable soft-cover format. With the exception of the Destexhe essay, the emphasis of the anthology is on the postwar period, with little consideration of the broad historical determinants of the period before World War II that contributed to some of the contemporary challenges in health and human rights. A deeper understanding of these contemporary challenges would be enhanced by an analysis of the historical precedents. They include the association between poverty and eugenics, the application of scientific racism, the evolution of discriminatory practices in medicine, and consideration of the relation between the state and “public health” encompassing the evolution of “population health” (or what German medicine once termed Volksgesundheit.) In sum, Health and Human Rights: a reader is a powerful tribute to the memory and spirit of Jonathan Mann’s exemplary work in the field. Perhaps Mann’s greatest posthumous legacy will be the entrenchment of human rights as a defined discipline within medicine, a discipline that this volume serves to elucidate and legitimise.
William E Seidelman University of Toronto and St Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
81