RT Review
T1 Eugenics and the Criticism of Bioethics
JF Ethical theory and moral practice
VO 10
IS 4
SP 409
OP 418
A1 Wilkinson, Stephen
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2007
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785694391
AB This article provides a critical assessment of some aspects of Ann Kerr and Tom Shakespeare's Genetic Politics: from eugenics to genome. In particular, I evaluate their claims: (a) that bioethics is too ‘top down’, involving normative prescriptions, whereas it should instead be ‘bottom up’ and grounded in social science; and (b) that contemporary bioethics has not dealt particularly well with people's moral concerns about eugenics. I conclude that several of Kerr and Shakespeare's criticisms are well-founded and serve as valuable reminders to the bioethics community. These include the claims: that bioethics ought not to consist entirely of applying moral theory to cases; that bioethics must take account of relevant empirical evidence; and that bioethicists should be on the look out for those subtle social forces which can undermine the voluntariness of people's choices and consents. However, we should reject some of Kerr and Shakespeare's other criticisms and I conclude (amongst other things) that even ‘mainstream’ bioethics is better able to deal with difficult issues like eugenics than Kerr and Shakespeare suggest.
K1 Genetics
K1 Moral Theory
K1 Bioethics
K1 Eugenics
K1 Rezension
DO 10.1007/s10677-006-9058-y