The Flaw in Formalist Accounts of Circumvention Tourism. Issue 3 (2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Shaw, Joshua
• Editors: Walter-McCabe, Heather; Chen, Alexander
• Is Part Of: Journal of law, medicine & ethics. Volume 50:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 551
• Page End: 562
• Publication Date: 2022
• Subjects: Medical Tourism -- Circumvention Tourism -- Abortion -- Assisted Suicide -- and Punishments; Medical laws and legislation -- United States -- Periodicals; Medical care -- Law and legislation -- United States -- Periodicals; Medical ethics -- Periodicals; Jurisprudence -- Periodicals; Legislation, Medical -- Periodicals; Legislation, Nursing -- Periodicals; Ethics -- Periodicals; Forensic Medicine -- Periodicals; Nursing -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Societies -- Periodicals; Medical care -- Law and legislation; Medical ethics; Medical laws and legislation; United States; Periodicals; 344.73041
• DOI: 10.1017/jme.2022.93
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1073-1105

Abstract

Abstract: Circumvention tourism is a form of medical tourism that occurs when individuals travel abroad to receive treatments that are a prohibited in their home county but permitted in a destination country. This paper explores this question: Should individuals be punished by their home countries for engaging in circumvention tourism? Guido Pennings, Richard Huxtable, and I. Glenn Cohen have all argued for what I call "formalist accounts" of circumvention tourism. That is, they try to show that certain types of circumvention tourism should or should not be punished in principle . Against them, I show that questions about circumvention tourism's punishability cannot be answered in the abstract. Whether individuals should be punished depends too much on the prima facie morality of the treatments being performed and the prohibitions being circumvented.