Bioethics as Politics

Abstract

Bioethics has never been far removed from politics or political agendas. For instance, many of the early contributors argued fiercely for the rights of women, or the rights of unborn babies, depending on which side of the political debate their thinking fell. The empowerment of patients against the prevailing medical paternalism was similarly politically motivated. What separated the early bioethical contributions from the purely political ones was that they were using established theories and methodologies of their own disciplines to argue for their case. The scientific validity of these claims was something that could be assessed against the theoretical background of the respective disciplines. Bioethics has always been an inter- and multidisciplinary enterprise and this tendency has become more and more prevalent. The ever-changing realities of medicine and biomedical sciences, available resources and the views, values and beliefs of the various stakeholders are playing an increasingly important role in bioethical deliberations. Widening and deepening the understanding of the complex issues by utilizing a wide variety of approaches is, of course, laudable. However, when the aim is not only to describe, but to prescribe, the multidisciplinarity becomes a methodological problem. Politics can be defined as the practice and theory of influencing people and that is, I would argue, what most bioethicists are trying to do. They have a moral stance and related policy recommendations that they are trying to convince people to accept. This tendency is further strengthened by the expectation from the funding bodies for research to yield practically relevant results. The chapter substantiates the claim that (much of) bioethics is politics by looking at the kind of work that is being carried out in bioethics, the speculative nature of the cost-benefit analyses at the heart of bioethics debates and the problems caused by inter- and multidisciplinary approaches with an emphasis on new technologies.