History and Future of Bioethics

A Sociological View
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-986085-2
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 211 mm, Gewicht: 363 g

It seems like every day society faces a new ethical challenge raised by a scientific innovation. Human genetic engineering, stem cell research, face transplantation, synthetic biology - all were science fiction only a few decades ago, but now are all reality. How do we as a society decide whether these technologies are ethical? For decades professional bioethicists have served as mediators between a busy public and its decision-makers, helping people understand their own ethical
concerns, framing arguments, discrediting illogical claims, and supporting promising ones. These bioethicists play an instrumental role in guiding governments' ethical policy decisions, consulting for hospitals faced with vital decisions, and advising institutions that conduct research on humans.
Although the bioethics profession has functioned effectively for many years, it is now in crisis. Policy-makers are less inclined to take the advice of bioethics professionals, with many observers saying that bioethics debates have simply become partisan politics with dueling democratic and republican bioethicists. While this crisis is contained to the task of recommending ethical policy to the government, there is risk that it will spread to the other tasks conducted by bioethicists.
To understand how this crisis came about and to arrive at a solution, John H. Evans closely examines the history of the bioethics profession. Bioethics debates were originally dominated by theologians, but came to be dominated by the emerging bioethics profession due to the subtle and slow involvement of the government as the primary consumer of bioethical arguments. After the 1980s, however, the views of the government changed, making bioethical arguments less legitimate. Exploring the
sociological processes that lead to the evolution of bioethics to where it is today, Evans proposes a radical solution to the crisis. Bioethicists must give up its inessential functions, change the way they make ethical arguments, and make conscious and explicit steps toward re-establishing the
profession's legitimacy as a mediator between the public and government decision-makers.

"John Evans provides a trenchant reconstruction of the waxing and waning influence of theology on the bioethics canon, as well as an original proposal for a social science-based bioethics. This book will fascinate and instruct anyone interested in where we have been and where we should go in our societal conversation about deep human values."- Jonathan Moreno, University of Pennsylvania

Autoren/Hrsg.

Evans, John H

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Bioethik, Tierethik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Ethik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Bioethik, Tierethik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Medizinische Ethik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Introduction
PART 1: THE HISTORY OF BIOETHICAL DEBATE
AND THE BIOETHICS PROFESSION
Chapter 1: The Emergence of Bioethical Debate and the Jurisdictional Struggle Between Science and Theology
Chapter 2: The Theological Retreat, and the Emergence of the Bioethics Profession
PART II: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE JURISDICTIONAL CRISIS
Chapter 3: The Rise of The Social Movement Activists
PART III: TOWARD A NEW ERA OF BIOETHICAL DEBATE
Chapter 4: Task Clarification, Saying <"No>" in Public Policy Bioethics, and Making
the Argument for Jurisdiction
Chapter 5: A Modified Method for the Bioethics Profession
Chapter 6: Conclusion
Works Cited

Über Autor(innen)

John H. Evans

John H. Evans is professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He has held visiting positions at the Institute for Advanced Study and Yale, Edinburgh, and Muenster Universities. He is the author of two books on bioethics, religion and genetics, as well as many articles about science, religion, and public controversies.