Undignified bioethics

Bioethics

Volumn 24, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 234-241

  Cochrane, Alasdair ^a  

^a LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Autonomy; Dignity; Integrity; Moral status; Personhood; Virtue

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BIOETHICS; ETHICS; HUMAN; HUMAN RIGHTS; HUMANISM; MORALITY; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PERSONHOOD; PHILOSOPHY; TRENDS;

BIOETHICAL ISSUES; BIOETHICS; HUMAN RIGHTS; HUMANISM; HUMANS; MORAL OBLIGATIONS; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PERSONHOOD; PHILOSOPHY; PRINCIPLE-BASED ETHICS; VIRTUES;

EID: 77955161006     PISSN: 02699702     EISSN: 14678519     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01781.x     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. R. Macklin. Dignity is a Useless Concept. Br Med J2003; 327: 1419-1420.
2. H. Kuhse. 2000. Is There a Tension Between Autonomy and Dignity? In Bioethics and Biolaw, Vol. II: Four Ethical Principles
3. P. Kemp, J. Rendtorff & N. Mattson Johansen, eds. Copenhagen: Rhodos International Science and Art Publishers and Centre for Ethics and Law: 61-74.
4. S. Pinker. 2008. The Stupidity of Dignity. The New Republic 28 May.
5. Macklin, op. cit. note 1.
6. D. Beyleveld & R. Brownsword. 2001. Human Dignity in Bioethics and Biolaw. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 63
7. D. Schroeder. Dignity: Two Riddles and Four Concepts. Camb Q Healthc Ethics2008; 17: 230-238: 237.
8. For attempts at clarification in this spirit see Beyleveld & Brownsword, op. cit. note 5
9. M. Hayry. Another Look at Dignity. Camb Q Healthc Ethics 2004; 13: 7-14; L. Nordenfelt. The Varieties of Dignity. Health Care Anal 2004; 12: 69-81
10. R.E. Ashcroft. Making Sense of Dignity. J Med Ethics2005; 31: 679-682
11. Schroeder, op. cit. note 5; R. Van Der Graaf & J.J.M. Van Delden. Clarifying Appeals to Dignity in Medical Ethics from an Historical Perspective. Bioethics 2009; 23: 151-160.
12. This understanding is identified by Nordenfelt, op. cit. note 6; Schroeder, op. cit. note 5; and Beyleveld & Brownsword, op. cit. note 5.
13. Schroeder, op. cit. note 5, p. 234.
14. Beyleveld & Brownsword, op. cit. note 5; Nordenfelt, op. cit. note 6.
15. This type of dignity is identified by Lennart Nordenfelt as 'dignity of menschenwürde' in Nordenfelt, op. cit. note 6, pp. 77-78.
16. United Nations. 1948. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reprinted in 2006. International Human Rights Documents
17. P.R. Ghandi, ed., 5th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 21-25.
18. See Hayry, op. cit. note 6; Nordenfelt, op. cit. note 6, pp. 71-72
19. Van Der Graaf & Van Delden, op. cit. note 6; and Schroeder, op. cit. note 5.
20. For an understanding of dignity along these lines see, L.R. Kass. 2002. Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity. San Francisco, CA: Encounter Books: 241-243.
21. Hence we see dignity invoked by both sides in debates over euthanasia.
22. See M.A. Warren. 1997. Moral Status: Obligations to Persons and Other Living Things. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23. This conception is identified in Hayry, op. cit. note 6; Van Der Graaf & Van Delden, op. cit. note 6; Schroeder, op. cit. note 5; and Beyleveld & Brownsword, op. cit. note 5.
24. See Kant's discussion of our obligations regarding animals on this distinction. I. Kant. 1963. Lectures on Ethics. L. Infield trans. New York: Harper and Row.
25. The notion that the possession of interests is the necessary and sufficient condition for the possession of moral status has been famously advanced by utilitarian thinkers such a Jeremy Bentham and Henry Sidgwick. See also P. Singer. 1995. Animal Liberation. 2nd edn. London: Pimlico: 7-8.
26. See for example the exchange between Axel Kahn and John Harris with regards to the creation of such individuals through cloning as described in J. Harris. 2004. On Cloning. London: Routledge: 38-42
27. I very much agree with Harris's position.
28. Respect for autonomy is one of the four principles advocated in T.L. Beauchamp & J.F. Childress. 2001. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 5th edn. New York: Oxford University Press.
29. This is the conception least discussed by defenders of dignity. I find this odd, as it seems the most useful to my mind. Nordenfelt's notion of 'dignity of identity' is closely related, however. See Nordenfelt, op. cit. note 6. pp. 75-76.
30. M.C. Nussbaum. 2006. Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
31. The importance of self-respect to dignity is highlighted in P. Balzer, K. Rippe & P. Schaber. Two Concepts of Dignity for Humans and Non-human Organisms in the Context of Genetic Engineering. J Agric Environ Ethics 2000; 13: 7-27.
32. D. Foggo. 2008. Why Daniel James Chose to Die. The Sunday Times 19 October.
33. Nordenfelt, op. cit. note 6; M. Marmot. Dignity and Inequality. The Lancet2004; 364: 1019-1021.
34. Nussbaum, op. cit. note 22, p. 180.