Defining Harm: Religious Freedom And The Limits Of The Law
by Lori G. Beaman /
2009 / English / PDF
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"Defining Harm" offers a genealogy of religious freedom in a social climate of risk and fear. It is also the story of Bethany Hughes, a member of the Jehovah's Witness, and her legal battle to define the parameters of her medical treatment. Hughes refused to accept blood transfusions prescribed by physicians as part of her treatment for cancer.The B.H. case, as it was known in the courts, reflects a particular moment in the socio-legal treatment of religious freedom, and it reveals the specific intersection of religious, medical, legal, and other discourses in the governance of the religious citizen. Drawing from literature on risk society, governance, feminist legal theory, and religious rights, "Defining Harm" demonstrates how Bethany Hughes was denied her right to refuse treatment on the basis of her religious conviction as a Jehovah's Witness or as a mature minor.A powerful examination of the governance of a religious citizen and of the limits of religious freedom, "Defining Harm" will appeal to scholars and students in law and the social sciences, as well as to activists, policy-makers, and general readers interested in the relationships among religion, law, and government.
