Bioethics in Cultural Contexts (eBook)

Reflections on Methods and Finitude

Marcus Duwell, Dietmar Mieth, Christoph Rehmann-Sutter (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2006 | 2006
VII, 386 Seiten
Springer Netherlands (Verlag)
978-1-4020-4241-6 (ISBN)

Infos

CHRISTOPH REHMANN-SUTTER, MARCUS DÜWELL, DIETMAR MIETH When we placed 'finitude', 'limits of human existence' as a motto over a round of discussion on biomedicine and bioethics (which led to this collection of essays) we did not know how far this would lead us into methodological quandaries. However, we felt intuitively that an interdisciplinary approach including social and cultural sciences would have an advantage over a solely disciplinary (philosophical or theological) analysis. Bioethics, if it is to have adequate discriminatory power, should include sensitivity to the cultural contexts of biomedicine, and also to the cultural contexts of bioethics itself. Context awareness, of course, is not foreign to philosophical or theological bioethics, for the simple reason that the issues tackled in the debates (as in other fields of ethics) could not be adequately understood outside their contexts. Moral issues are always accompanied by contexts. When we try to unpack them - which is necessary to make them accessible to ethical discussion - we are regularly confronted with the fact that in removing too much of the context we do not clarify an issue, but make it less comprehensible. The context - at least some essential parts of it - is intrinsic to the issue. Unpacking in ethics is therefore a different procedure. It does not mean peeling the context off, but rather identifying which contextual elements are essential for an understanding of the key moral aspects of the issue, and explaining how they establish its particular character.

---

CHRISTOPH REHMANN-SUTTER, MARCUS DUWELL, DIETMAR MIETH When we placed "e;finitude"e;, "e;limits of human existence"e; as a motto over a round of discussion on biomedicine and bioethics (which led to this collection of essays) we did not know how far this would lead us into methodological quandaries. However, we felt intuitively that an interdisciplinary approach including social and cultural sciences would have an advantage over a solely disciplinary (philosophical or theological) analysis. Bioethics, if it is to have adequate discriminatory power, should include sensitivity to the cultural contexts of biomedicine, and also to the cultural contexts of bioethics itself. Context awareness, of course, is not foreign to philosophical or theological bioethics, for the simple reason that the issues tackled in the debates (as in other fields of ethics) could not be adequately understood outside their contexts. Moral issues are always accompanied by contexts. When we try to unpack them - which is necessary to make them accessible to ethical discussion - we are regularly confronted with the fact that in removing too much of the context we do not clarify an issue, but make it less comprehensible. The context - at least some essential parts of it - is intrinsic to the issue. Unpacking in ethics is therefore a different procedure. It does not mean peeling the context off, but rather identifying which contextual elements are essential for an understanding of the key moral aspects of the issue, and explaining how they establish its particular character.

Inhalt

Introduction; C. Rehmann-Sutter, M. Düwell, D. Mieth. I. Fundamental Aspects. 1. History and Future of Bioethics; A. R. Jonsen. 2. The Need for Ethical Evaluation in Biomedicine and Biopolitics; D. Mieth. 3. Finitude – a Neglected Perspective in Bioethics; B. Sitter-Liver. 4. Limits of Bioethics; C. Rehmann-Sutter. 5. The Problem of Limits of Law in Bioethical Issues; S. Castignone. II. Classical Approaches. 6. One Moral Principle or Many? M. Düwell. 7. Danger and Merits of Principlism: Meta-Theoretical Reflections on the Beauchamp/Childress–Approach to Biomedical Ethics; B. Schöne-Seifert. 8. The Journey from Ethics to Law: The Case of Euthanasia; B. Feuillet le Mintier. 9. Recognition and Respect for Persons: a Personalistic Interpretation of Kant's Categorical Imperative; R. Mordacci. 10. Rationality in Bioethics: Reasonable Adjudication in a Life and Death Case of the Separation of Cojoined Twins; D. Beyleveld. III. Culture and Society. 11. The Public Role of Bioethics and the Role of the Public; A. Cortina. 12. Experts on Bioethics in Biopolitics; S. Graumann. 13. The Contribution of Medical History to Medical Ethics: The Case of Brain Death; C. Wiesemann. 14. Alternative Medicine: A Dispute on Truth, Power or Money? E. Krizova. 15. Dimensions of Cultural Diversity of Medical Ethics; P. Tishchenko. IV. Body and Identity. 16. Body, Perception and Identity; J.-P. Wils. 17. Disabled Embodiment and an Ethic of Care; J. Leach Scully. 18. Coping with Limits: Two Strategies and Their Athropological and Ethical Implications; W. Lesch. V. Innovative Modes of Analysis. 19. What Can the Social Sciences Contribute to the Studyof Ethics? Theoretical, Empirical and Substantive Considerations; E. Haimes. 20. Discourse Ethics: Apel, Habermas, and Beyond; M. Kettner. 21. The Concept of Care Ethics in Biomedicine: The Case of Disability; E. Feder Kittay. 22. The Thick Social Matrix for Bioethics: Anthropological Approaches; R. Rapp. 23. Narrative Bioethics; H. Haker. List of Contributors.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.3.2006
• Reihe/Serie: International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine
• Zusatzinfo: VII, 369 p.
• Verlagsort: Dordrecht
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Beauchamp • Bioethics • Biomedical ethics • Childress • Ethical Dilemma • Ethical Issues • ethics • Medical Ethics • Moral
• ISBN-10: 1-4020-4241-8 / 1402042418
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4020-4241-6 / 9781402042416