Bioethics in Cultural Contexts

by Rehmann-sutter, Christoph; Duwell, Marcus; Mieth, Dietmar

• ISBN13: 9781402042409
• ISBN10: 140204240X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-02-15
• Publisher: SPRINGER VERLAG INC

Summary

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. Biomedical developments carry with them social and cultural meanings that must be taken into account if the accompanying bioethical dilemmas are to be understood. This book discusses a range of methodological issues for an interdisciplinary bioethics. How can bioethics be an enterprise that does not only isolate issues and moral reasons but also (re)contextualises them? What are the strengths and weaknesses of different traditional and innovative modes of ethical work in terms of these tasks? By introducing the term "finitude" in the sense of limits of human existence, limits of human knowledge and knowledge capacity, a difference was set in the cultural apprehension of medicine. Is medicine aimed at overcoming our existential limits: to fight diseases and prolong life? Finitude reintroduces the existential and cultural basis on which every medicine (limits-sensitive or off-limits medicine) depends, but it concerns also ethical judgment. An apprehension of the limitations of different ethical approaches to biomedicine, however, could strengthen the collaborative effort of an interdisciplinary bioethics that embraces also cultural studies and social sciences.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Switzerland; Marcus Düwell, the Netherlands and Dietmar Mieth; Germany	1	(10)
I. Fundamental Aspects	11	(80)
1. History and Future of Bioethics
Albert R. Jonsen, USA	13	(8)
2. The Need for Ethical Evaluation in Biomedicine and Biopolitics
Dietmar Mieth, Germany	21	(24)
3. Finitude – a Neglected Perspective in Bioethics
Beat Sitter-Liver, Switzerland	45	(14)
4. Limits of Bioethics
Christoph Rehmann-Sutter, Switzerland	59	(22)
5. The Problem of Limits of Law in Bioethical Issues
Silvana Castignone, Italy	81	(10)
II. Classical Approaches	91	(72)
6. One Moral Principle or Many?
Marcus Düwell, the Netherlands	93	(16)
7. Danger and Merits of Principlism: Meta-Theoretical Reflections on the Beauchamp/Childress—Approach to Biomedical Ethics
Bettina Schöne-Seifert, Germany	109	(12)
8. The Journey from Ethics to Law: The Case of Euthanasia
Brigitte Feuillet le Mintier, France	121	(8)
9. Recognition and Respect for Persons: a Personalistic Interpretation of Kant's Categorical Imperative
Roberto Mordacci, Italy	129	(16)
10. Rationality in Bioethics: Reasonable Adjudication in a Life and Death Case of the Separation of Cojoined Twins
Deryck Beyleveld, UK	145	(18)
III. Culture and Society	163	(66)
11. The Public Role of Bioethics and the Role of the Public
Adela Cortina, Spain	165	(10)
12. Experts on Bioethics in Biopolitics
Sigrid Graumann, Germany	175	(12)
13. The Contribution of Medical History to Medical Ethics: The Case of Brain Death
Claudia Wiesemann, Germany	187	(10)
14. Alternative Medicine: A Dispute on Truth, Power or Money?
Eva Krizova, Czechia	197	(14)
15. Dimensions of Cultural Diversity of Medical Ethics
Pavel Tishchenko, Russia	211	(18)
IV. Body and Identity	229	(46)
16. Body, Perception and Identity
Jean-Pierre Wils, The Netherlands	231	(16)
17. Disabled Embodiment and an Ethic of Care
Jackie Leach Scully, Switzerland and UK	247	(16)
18. Coping with Limits: Two Strategies and Their Athropological and Ethical Implications
Walter Lesch, Belgium	263	(12)
V. Innovative Modes of Analysis	275	(102)
19. What Can the Social Sciences Contribute to the Study of Ethics? Theoretical, Empirical and Substantive Considerations
Erica Haimes, UK	277	(22)
20. Discourse Ethics: Apel, Habermas, and Beyond
Matthias Kettner, Germany	299	(20)
21. The Concept of Care Ethics in Biomedicine: The Case of Disability
Eva Feder Kittay, USA	319	(22)
22. The Thick Social Matrix for Bioethics: Anthropological Approaches
Rayna Rapp, USA	341	(12)
23. Narrative Bioethics
Hille Haker, USA and Germany	353	(24)
List of Contributors	377