Against Bioethics
Against Bioethics (Basic Bioethics) Jonathan Baron,
Publisher: The MIT Press
ISBN: 0262524783
DDC: 174.2
Edition: Paperback; 2007-09-30
Summary:
Governments, health professionals, patients, research institutions,
and research subjects look to bioethicists for guidance in making
important decisions about medical treatment and research. And yet,
argues Jonathan Baron in Against Bioethics, applied bioethics lacks
the authority of a coherent guiding theory and is based largely on
intuitive judgments. Baron proposes an alternative, arguing that
bioethics could have a coherent theory based on utilitarianism and
decision analysis. Utilitarianism holds that the best option is the
one that does the most expected good. Decision analysis provides a
way of thinking about the risks and trade-offs of specific options.
Like economics, utilitarian decision analysis makes predictions of
expected good in complex situations, using data when possible, and
focusing human judgment on the issues relevant to consequences. With
such a guiding theory, bioethics would never yield decisions that
clearly go against the expected good of those involved, as some do
now. Baron discusses issues in bioethics that can be illuminated by
such analysis, including "enhancements" to nature in the form of
genetics, drugs, and mind control; reproduction; death and
end-of-life issues, including advance directives, euthanasia, and
organ donation; coercion and consent; conflict of interest and the
reform of internal review boards; and drug research. Although Baron
opposes current practice in bioethics, he argues that by combining
utilitarianism and decision analysis, bioethics can achieve its aims
of providing authoritative guidance in resolving thorny medical and
ethical issues.
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