Moral acquaintances : methodology in bioethics / Kevin Wm. Wildes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wildes, Kevin Wm. (Kevin William), 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical ethics--Methodology.

Medical ethics.

Bioethics--Methodology.

Bioethics.

Physical Description:

x, 214 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, [2000]

Summary:

From decisions about the end of life to choices about the creation of life and, more recently, to questions concerning the cost and accessibility of health care, bioethics is a field of vigorous and sometimes rancorous public debate. Indeed the moral controversies and dilemmas of medicine and health care often propel bioethics into newspaper headlines and television talk shows.

Unlike most books in bioethics that offer an exploration of and guidance on any one of these issues, Moral Acquaintances: Methodology in Bioethics is not part of the standard repertory. The question Kevin Wildes poses is not what we can do morally in a field of great moral controversy, but how we conceive the controversy and seek a moral course of action. The book is therefore a book about methodology in a practice inspired by moral controversy and experience.

Wildes argues that the methodological issues in bioethics mirrors the experience of moral pluralism in a secular society. The different methods that have been used in the field reflect the different moral views found in a pluralistic society. Rather than assume that there is one method for all or that we are lost in deep moral pluralism, Wildes argues that we can imagine ourselves as moral acquaintances. Key to understanding our acquaintanceship are the procedures that bind us together and the moral justifications and assumptions for those procedures.

Contents:

Part 1 Moral Friends, Moral Strangers, and Methodology

1. Bioethics and Moral Acquaintances 11

The Emergence of Bioethics 12

Moral Acquaintances and Moral Pluralism 16

Procedures and Morality 20

2. Foundational Methods 23

A Survey of Foundational Theories in Bioethics 28

The Limits of Foundations: Form and Matter 51

3. Ecumenism in Bioethics: The Appeal to Middle-Level Principles 55

The Method of Middle-Level Principles 57

The Standard Criticisms 66

Postmodernity and Principles 77

Principles, Cases, and the Moral Point of View 83

4. After Paradigms: The Crisis of Secular Casuistry 86

Jonsen and Toulmin and the Renaissance of Casuistry 90

The Context of Casuistry 97

Secular Casuistry: The Paradox of Trolleys and Transplants 114

Conclusions for Bioethics 119

Part 2 Moral Acquaintances and Methodology

5. Communitarian Bioethics 125

Particularity, Humanity, and Community 127

The Shapes of Moral Communities 129

Friends, Strangers, and Acquaintances 136

6. The Genealogy of Agreement and Consensus 142

Pluralism and Consensus 145

The Geography of Moral Judgment: A Spectrum of Agreement and Disagreement 147

A Sociology of Agreement 153

Agreement between Friends, Strangers, and Acquaintances 157

7. Moral Acquaintances: Proceduralism and Organizational Ethics 161

Moral Acquaintances and Procedural Bioethics 164

Bioethics, Moral Acquaintances, and the Common Morality of Proceduralism 167

Organizational Ethics 173.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0268034508

0268034524

OCLC:

44016638