What does it mean to be human? How legal systems answer and should answer this profoundly important question is addressed by O. Carter Snead in Professor Snead is well qualified to undertake this project. He is a professor of law at the University of Notre Dame and previously served on the US President’s Council on Bioethics, the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Bioethics and the International Bioethics Committee. He led the US government delegation to UNESCO serving as its chief negotiator in drafting the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights and is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the principal bioethics advisory body to the Pope.