Abstract
Three widely accepted principles – autonomy, beneficence and justice – provide a useful analytic framework for considering controversies and conflicts in bioethics. Since these principles capture key concepts found in diverse normative theories they provide a starting point from which consistent ethical analysis and comparison can begin. While justice is commonly discussed in the business ethics literature, the other two principles are not widely discussed. This paper investigates whether the principles of autonomy and beneficence provide a framework that is equally useful for framing issues in business ethics. It is argued that they do. First, the principle of autonomy, with its associated notions of informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, voluntariness, self-mastery, and so on, provides a consistent approach to the analysis of diverse issues that arise in business ethics from market research to recruitment practices. Second, it is argued that the relationships between a business and its stakeholders ground duties of beneficence. The principle of beneficence provides a framework for considering the issues that arise in these relationships.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beauchamp, T. L.: 1989, ‘Ethical Theory and Bioethics', in Tom L. Beauchamp andLeRoy Walters (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, Third Edition (Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California).
Beauchamp, T. L.: 1999, ‘Ethical Theory and Bioethics', in Tom L. Beauchamp andLeRoy Walters (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, Fifth Edition (Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California).
Beauchamp, T. L. andJ. F. Childress: 1994, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Fourth Edition (Oxford University Press, London).
Beauchamp, T. L. and L. B. McCullough: 1991, ‘Two Models of Moral Responsibility in Medicine', in T. A Mappes. andS. J. Zembaty (eds.), Biomedical Ethics, Third Edition (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Berglund, C. A.: 1998, Ethics for Health Care (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
Charlesworth, M.: 1992, ‘Distributing Health Care Resources: Ethical Assumptions’ (Australian Health Ethics Committee, Background Paper for AHEC Workshop).
Charlesworth, M.: 1993, Bioethics in a Liberal Society (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Childress, J. F.: 1989, ‘Ethical Criteria for Procuring and Distributing Organs for Transplantation', in James F. Blumstein andFrank A. Sloan (eds.), Organ Transplantation Policy (Duke University Press, Durham).
DeGeorge, R. T.: 1999, Business Ethics, Fifth Edition (Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey).
Dworkin, G.: 1988, The Theory and Practice of Autonomy (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Edwards R. B. andG. C. Graber: 1988, Bio-Ethics (Harcourt Brace, San Diego).
Englehardt, H. T.: 1986, ‘The Principles of Bioethcs', The Foundations of Bioethics, Third Edition (Oxford University Press, New York).
English, D. C.: 1994, Bioethics: A Clinical Guide for Medical Students (Norton, New York).
Frankena, W.: 1973, Ethics, Second Edition (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).
Gillon, R.: 1994, ‘Introduction', in R. Gillon (ed.), Principles of Health Care Ethics (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester).
Goulding, T, Co-ordinating ed.: 1995, The Law Handbook, Fifth Edition (Redfern Legal Centre Publishing Service, Redfern).
Goodpaster, K. E.: 1993, ‘Business Ethics and Stakeholder Analysis', in T. I White (ed.), Business Ethics: A Philosophical Reader (Macmillan, New York).
Mappes, T. A. and J. S. Zembaty: 1991, ‘Biomedical Ethics and Ethical Theory', in T. A Mappes andS. J. Zembaty (eds.), Biomedical Ethics, Third Edition (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Moore, J.: 1998, ‘What is Really Unethical about Insider Trading?’ in W. H. Shaw andV. Barry (eds.), Moral Issues in Business, Seventh Edition (Wadsworth, Belmont CA).
Tresnowski, B. R.: 1993, ‘The Necessary Debate', Woodstock Report, December 1993, no. 36 (Woodstock Theological Center) http: //www.georgetown. edu/centers/woodstock/ report accessed 2 April, 2001.
United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: 1978, Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (The Belmont Report) (Publication No. OS 78–0012, United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington DC).
Veatch, R. M.: 1989, ‘An Ethical Framework for Hospital Ethics Committees', in Tom L. Beauchamp andLeRoy Walters (eds.), Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, Third Edition (Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fisher, J. Lessons for Business Ethics from Bioethics. Journal of Business Ethics 34, 15–24 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011916709062
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011916709062