The statement of the human rights in a biopolitical context: imune logic versus common logic

Abstract

This paper has the objective of analyzing two opposite biopolitical logics, which cross the understanding and the effectiveness of human rights. This is a core task for Bioethics. On one side, there is a negative biopolitical logic, which defends the rights of the individual against the collective, generating immune dynamics that are exempted from common responsibilities. This logic is present on the modern juridical system, which is understood as the society’s immune system. On the other side, it is the positive biopolitical logic of human rights, which assumes human rights as a potential dispositive to the constitution of the common, as a protective way for their concretization. This is the proposal of the Bioethics of protection, which defends that the State must protect vulnerable groups and populations through public policies. A concrete example of this biopolitical crossing on human rights is the right of health when the judicialization of the health takes place. Both biopolitical logics are present in the formulation of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, which were a consensual agreement of opposite positions.