AN UNDIGNIFIED BIOETHICS: THERE IS NO METHOD IN THIS MADNESS

ABSTRACT In a recent article, Alasdair Cochrane argues for the need to have an undignified bioethics. His is not, of course, a call to transform bioethics into an inelegant, pathetic discipline, or one failing to meet appropriate disciplinary standards. His is a call to simply eliminate the concept...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioethics 2012-05, Vol.26 (4), p.224-230
Main Author: DE MELO-MARTÍN, INMACULADA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioethics
Bioethics - trends
Body
Cochrane, Alasdair
Conceptualization
Dignity
Discipline
Discourse
Ethics
human dignity
Human Rights
Humans
Moral Obligations
Personal Autonomy
Personhood
Problem solving
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Summary:ABSTRACT In a recent article, Alasdair Cochrane argues for the need to have an undignified bioethics. His is not, of course, a call to transform bioethics into an inelegant, pathetic discipline, or one failing to meet appropriate disciplinary standards. His is a call to simply eliminate the concept of human dignity from bioethical discourse. Here I argue that he fails to make his case. I first show that several of the flaws that Cochrane identifies are not flaws of the conceptions of dignity he discusses but rather flaws of his, often problematic, understanding of such conceptions. Second, I argue that Cochrane's case against the concept of human dignity goes too far. I thus show that were one to agree that these are indeed flaws that require that we discard our ethical concepts, then following Cochrane's recommendations would commit us not only to an undignified bioethics, i.e. a bioethics without dignity, but to a bioethics without much ethics at all.
ISSN:0269-9702
1467-8519
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2010.01849.x