Bioethics is Philosophy.

Abstract

In their target article, Blumenthal-Barby et al. (2022) address the view that bioethics as a philosophical discipline is obsolete. Indeed, their discussion was prompted by a recent bioethics conference’s plenary session on the obsolescence of bioethics. While the speakers, including several leading bioethicists, acknowledged the essential work that philosophers had provided in establishing the basic principles of the discipline, they also held that further work was no longer necessary. In brief, they maintained that: the foundations have been set, the questions identified, the solutions tabulated. Bioethics today consists of merely the application of “existing philosophical principles or concepts.” Philosophers can step aside. The conference speakers were not voicing a minority view. We thus agree with Blumenthal-Barby et al. that a decisive rejection of what we’ll refer to as bioethics eliminativism is called for. While we are largely in agreement with their defense of the enduring importance of philosophical bioethics, more needs to be said. In particular, we address a lingering misunderstanding of what philosophers do and thereby demonstrate what makes bioethics a philosophical discipline as opposed to an autonomous discipline, one where philosophers’ input is no longer relevant. As we understand their position, bioethics eliminativism maintains two theses: