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How Bioethical
Standpoints Influence
Biomedical Decisions
Robert Arp, Ph.D.
Ontology Research Group (ORG)
www.org.buffalo.edu
National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO)
www.bioontology.org
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Biomedical Research, Grant 1 U 54 HG004028.
Information on the National Centers for Biomedical Computing can be found at: http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/bioinformatics.
See: Biomedical Ethics Ontology
http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/dokuwiki/hsl
wiki/doku.php?id=bioethics_ontology
Contributors:
Peter Winkelstein
David Koepsell
Andrea Ott
Robert Arp
(There will be a lot of categorization of Biomedical Ethicsrelated entities and principles in this talk, derived from
thinking about a Biomedical Ethics Ontology)
ETHICS
DESCRIPTIVE
ETHICS
PHILOSOPHICAL
ETHICS
METAETHICS
NORMATIVE
ETHICS/ MORAL
THEORY
PRACTICAL/
APPLIED ETHICS
In this talk, I will primarily be doing:
DESCRIPTIVE
ETHICS
DESCRIPTIVE
ETHICS
ABOUT
ETHICS
DESCRIPTIVE
ETHICS
PHILOSOPHICAL
ETHICS
METAETHICS
NORMATIVE
ETHICS/ MORAL
THEORY
PRACTICAL/
APPLIED ETHICS
ETHICS
DESCRIPTIVE
ETHICS
PHILOSOPHICAL
ETHICS
METAETHICS
NORMATIVE
ETHICS/ MORAL
THEORY
PRACTICAL/
APPLIED ETHICS
ETHICS
DESCRIPTIVE
ETHICS
PHILOSOPHICAL
ETHICS
METAETHICS
NORMATIVE
ETHICS/ MORAL
THEORY
BIOETHICAL
STANDPOINT
PRACTICAL/
APPLIED ETHICS
BIOMEDICAL
DECISION
APPLIED ETHICS
GROUNDED IN
NORMATIVE ETHICS
GROUNDED IN
METAETHICS
METAETHICS
Nature of
Moral
Knowledge
Metaphysical
Proper
or
Grounds for Ontological
Justifying
Status of
Moral Claims Moral Norms
and Entities
NORMATIVE ETHICS
What
Development
What Should
Constitutes
of Various
I Do? Who
Ethical/Moral
the
Should I Be?
Theories
“Good Life?”
APPLIED ETHICS
Realm of
Professions,
Institutions
and Public
Policy
Generates
Practical
Moral
Answers
Applies
Ethical/Moral
Theories to
Practice
APPLIED ETHICS
GROUNDED IN
NORMATIVE ETHICS
GROUNDED IN
METAETHICS
Applied Ethics: Business Ethics, Legal Ethics,
Cyberethics, Bioethics, Medical Ethics…
Biomedical Ethics
GROUNDED IN
Various Moral Theories: Religious Ethics, Natural Law
Ethics, Egoism, Relativism, Utilitarianism, KantianBased Deontology, Virtue Ethics
GROUNDED IN
Metaphysical Status of Moral Norms/Entities: What one
believes exists “out there” in reality—god, nature, minds,
matter and motion, nothing—that is the source of morality.
I decided not to do X…
I made the practical decision to do Y…
Why?
BECAUSE
Priest says so… It’s unnatural… It’s cowardly…
It’s not in our best interest… It’s unjust…
Why?
BECAUSE
God exists… Nature is supreme… Humans with reason
are central in the universe… The biosphere is sacred…
There is nothing outside of this bleak existence…
What we do
GROUNDED IN
Some set of principles
(implicit or explicit)
GROUNDED IN
Our metaphysical/ontological
outlook (s)
Another Way to Visualize
This (Top-Down)…
What we do
GROUNDED IN
Some set of
principles
GROUNDED IN
Our metaphysical
or ontological
outlook
What’s your evidence for this, Rob?
- Psychological, Anthropological, Sociological,
Religious, and Ethics journals and books
- Testimonies resulting from more than 15 years of
teaching adults and young adults general ethics,
business ethics, biomedical ethics, world religions, and
Catholic morality courses
- 9 years of ministry in the Catholic seminary (high
school, college, and grad school) at hospitals, nursing
homes, half-way houses, homes for the mentally
disabled, and other ministerial experiences
- Years of in-depth conversations with people “getting
to the bottom” as to why they act or do not act
SCHOLARLY WORKS
See, for example:
- J. Fieser (Ed.), Metaethics, Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics
(Wadsworth, 1999).
- A. Miller, An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics (Cambridge,
2003).
- C. Korsgaard, The Sources of Normativity (Cambridge, 1996).
- M. Smith, The Moral Problem (Blackwell, 1994).
- R. Shafer-Landau (Ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics: Volume I (Oxford,
2006).
- T. Horgan & M. Timmons (Eds.), Metaethics after Moore (Oxford, 2006).
- J. Jacobs, Dimensions of Moral Theory: An Introduction to Metaethics
and Moral Psychology (Blackwell, 2002).
- The Journal of Ethics
- Ethics and Behavior
- Bioethics
- Sociology
- Cultural Studies
- Ethics
- Journal of Clinical Ethics
- Journal of Religious Ethics
- Journal of Sociology
- Journal of Cultural Studies
What we do
GROUNDED IN
Some set of principles
(implicit or explicit)
GROUNDED IN
Our metaphysical/ontological
outlook (s)
Our metaphysical/ontological
outlook (s)
Metaphysical Status of Moral Norms/Entities: What one
believes exists “out there” in reality—god, nature, minds,
matter and motion, nothing—that is the source of morality.
God exists… Nature is supreme… Humans with reason
are central in the universe… The biosphere is sacred…
There is nothing outside of this bleak existence…