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This volume presents a number of controversial cases of enforced medical treatment from around the globe, providing for the first time a common, biopolitcal framework for all of them. Bringing together all these real cases guarantees that a new, more complete understanding of the topic will be within grasp for readers unacquainted with the aspects involved in these cases. On the one hand, readers interested mainly in the legal and medical dimensions of cases like those considered will benefit from the explanation of the biopolitical framework within which each case develops. On the other hand, those focusing on only one of the situations presented here will find the parallels between the cases an interesting expansion of the complexity of the problem. Despite the book´s ambitious goal, for those willing to use it as supplemental material or interested in only one of the cases, the chapters can function as self-standing pieces to be read separately. This volume will be a valuable tool for both academics and professionals. Bioethicists in both the analytic and continental traditions, will find the book interesting for not only the specific concepts and issues considered, but also for its constructive bridging of the two schools of thought. In addition to philosophers, the structure of this work will also appeal to lawyers, doctors, human rights activists, and anyone concerned in the most disparate way with real-life cases of enforced medical treatment.

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Preface

Chapter 1
The concepts of Autonomy, Competence, Dignity and Biopolitics

Introduction

1.1.Autonomy

1.2.Competence 1.3.Dignity

1.4.Biopolitics

Conclusion

Chapter 2
Enforcing medical treatment to keep a person alive: the problematic case of Anorexia Nervosa

Introduction

2.1.Anorexia Nervosa: an insight to a contemporary drama

2.2. The conceptualization of Anorexia Nervosa by medicine, the law and the sufferers

2.3. The tension between competence and mental illness in anorexics

2.4. Are we to enforce medical treatment in cases of Anorexia Nervosa?

2.5. The biopolitical reasoning for keeping anorexics alive

Conclusion

Chapter 3
Enforcing Medical Treatment to kill: the case of Charles Laverne Singleton

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3.3. Neuroscience, enforced treatments and other perspectives
3.4. Punishment, insanity and responsibility
3.4.a The idea of punishment
3.4.b The evolution of the role of insanity in law
3.4.c A retributivist argument
3.5. Right to treatment or duty to be treated?
4.6. A further option
Conclusion
Chapter 4
Hunger strikes and other controversial cases
Introduction
4.1.The Dax´s case
4.2. Issues related to keeping one´s alive against his will
4.3. Allowing to die: the case of Sami Mbarka Ben Garci
4.4. Can we consider reliable the competence of an hunger striker?
4.5. Further hunger strike cases
Conclusion
Chapter 5

Guantanamo and its specific biopolitical charge
Introduction
5.1. Declaration of Malta on hunger strikes
5.2. Are hunger strikes in Guantanamo bay different from others?
5.3. The role of doctors and their dual loyalty
5.4. Arguments supporting the use of naso-gastric treatment in Guantanamo

5.5. Arguments condemning the use naso-gastric treatment in Guantanamo
5.6. Hyppocratic oath or political agenda? A biopolitical analysis of the issue
Conclusion

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