V recenzi knihy „Medical law and ethics“ od Jonathana Herringa, jsem si vytkl za cíl seznámit čtenáře s otázkami zdravotnického práva a etiky, o nichž autor ve své práci pojednává. Pro odbornou i laickou veřejnost může být kniha cenným zdrojem poznání, neboť autor na jednom místě z různých úhlů pohledu rozebírá témata, která vyvolávají celou řadu právních a etických otázek (problematika euthanasie, výzkumu na člověku, klonování, sterilizace, apod.). V jedenácti kapitolách své recenze na tato témata poukazuji a přidávám k nim komentář svůj, jakož i dalších autorů a judikatury. and In a review of the book "Medical law and ethics" by Jonathan Herring, I made it my goal to familiarize the reader with the issues of medical law and ethics, which author discuss in his work. The book should be a valuable source of knowledge for both, experts and laymen, because the author dealt with many topics from different angles, that raise a number of legal and ethical issues (the issue of euthanasia, research on humans, cloning, sterilization, etc..). I focus on these topics in eleven chapters of my review and I also add my comment, as well as comments of other authors and case law.
The concept of personal identity has recently come to play an increasingly important role in bioethical discussion concerning the beginning and end of human life. This study does not aim to represent the whole range of applications of theories of personal identity to bioethics. It focuses only on the beginning of human life, namely on the question of the moral acceptability of abortion. The author begins by describing an argument rejecting the acceptability of abortions which has been advanced by P. Lee, and it is shown that the validity of this argument depends on a certain conception of personal identity. Then the author briefly defines the psychological approach to personal identity, and he points to its weaknesses. There follows a discussion of the theory of animalism which claims that our persistence in time does not comprise any psychological factors. The conclusion of the article deals with various theories of moral status and indicates the inadequacy of functional criteria in accounting for the moral point of view. The article finishes by stating that the moral status of human beings should be founded on the concept of human dignity. If the considerations in the study have been set out correctly then they justify the following conclusion: abortions are morally unacceptable., David Černý., and Obsahuje poznámky a bibliografii