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With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves. The International Bioethics Committee as a UNESCO working group has for the last several years dedicated to deepen this principle of human vulnerability and personal integrity. This book serves to supplement this effort with a religious perspective given a great number of the world´s population is affiliated with some religious traditions. While there is diversity within each of these traditions, all of them carry in them the mission to protect the weak, the underprivileged, and the poor. Thus, here presented is a collection of papers written by bioethics experts from six major world religions-Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism-who were gathered to discuss the meaning and implications of the principle of vulnerability in their respective traditions.

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Preface; Alberto Garcia.- Introduction: The principle of vulnerability: meeting ground of six religions; Joseph Tham.- Part I: General considerations on the principle of vulnerability in bioethics.- Vulnerability: How did the principle come about?; Gonzalo Miranda.- The principle of vulnerability in the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights; Henk ten Have.- Vulnerability: Considerations on the Appropriate use of the Term in Bioethics; Martha Tarasco Michel.- Part II: Religious perspectives of vulnerability from philosophical, ethical and legal points of view.- Vulnerability, Compassion, and Ethical Responsibility: A Buddhist Perspective on the Phenomenology of Illness and Health; Ellen Y. Zhang.- The Ethical and the Legal Aspects of Vulnerability in the Christian Perspective; Stamatios Tzitzis.- Family as First Bulwark for the Vulnerable: Confucian Perspectives on the Anthropology and Ethics of Human Vulnerability; Ping Chueng Lo.- Between Tradition and Modernity: Bioethics, Vulnerabilities and Social Change in Hinduism; Prakash Desai.- Human Vulnerability in Islam; Mustafa Abu Sway.- Reflections on human vulnerability and the rabbinic perspective on medical ethics; Yechiel Michael Barilan.- Part III: Reponses to vulnerable groups from six religions.- Buddhist perspective; Soraj Hongladarom.- Christian perspective; Hans Ucko, Colleen M Gallagher.- Confucian perspective; Jonathan Keung Lap Chan.- Hindu perspective; Vasantha Muthuswamy.- Islamic perspective; Dariusch Atighetchi.- Jewish perspective; Adina Halevy, Jonathan Halevy, David Heyd.-Conclusion; Lessons Learned, Joseph Tham.- About the contributors.- Appendices.

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From the book reviews:
"This is a compilation of essays from different religious and cultural perspectives regarding human vulnerability in bioethics. ... this book is intended for people studying or working in bioethics. It is also suitable for students of comparative religion, public policy, health policy, and other related fields. ... This collection of essays is successful in sharing the authentic voices of a diverse group of religious and cultural perspectives." (Jessica Roach, Doody´s Book Reviews, January, 2015)

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