Harvard University Press releases Spanish translation of Professor Carter Snead’s book, ‘What It Means to be Human’

Harvard University Press, working with the University of Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid, Spain, has released a Spanish translation of Professor O. Carter Snead’s book, What It Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics.

Professor Pedro Pallares Yabur of Panamerican University in Mexico served as translator for the Spanish edition of the book, Lo Que Significa Ser Humano.

Snead is a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and director of the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics & Culture. He is one of the world’s leading experts on public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods.

What It Means to Be Human was published by Harvard University Press in 2020, and a paperback edition was released in 2022. The book proposes “a vision of human identity and flourishing that supports those who are profoundly vulnerable and dependent — children, the disabled, and the elderly” and analyzes how that vision would affect three of the most complex issues in bioethics: abortion, assisted reproductive technology, and end-of-life decisions.

The book has attracted widespread praise, and been reviewed and discussed in numerous newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals.

The Wall Street Journal highlighted What It Means to be Human as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2020.” In his review for the same paper, Yuval Levin called it “among the most important works of moral philosophy produced so far in this century.”

Snead and the book received the 2021 Expanded Reason Award given by Francisco de Vitoria University and the Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.

In May of 2022, What It Means to be Human was listed in The New York Times as one of “Ten Books to Understand the Abortion Debate in the United States.”

More information about the the Spanish translation of the book, Lo Que Significa Ser Humano, is available on the University of Francisco Vitoria website.