Bioethics in the 21st Century: Principlism, Situation Ethics, and Love

Abstract

This Monograph derives from a paper written for delivery at the 14th UNESCO World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Health Law. Bioethics raises the central question of how to live, how to die, and how society should both direct and relate to the new, startling biotechnological and reproductive advances of the 21st century. This Monograph analyzes, critically, Principlism and Situation Ethics in an effort to determine which is more efficacious as a framework for advancing sound moral argumentation, developing policy and for supporting ethical decision making in these three principal areas of interest and concern. In order to assure an active, positive role and – indeed – relevance for bioethics in this century, the conclusion drawn is that the “traditional” template for ethical argumentation through Principlism should be re-calibrated in order to allow love to be the single or situational virtue of a common sense morality or – in other words – as the controlling vector of force in complex ethical cases which call for a resolution. Accordingly, decisions should be guided by a spirit of rational thinking and basic common sense which seeks, always, to direct a caring response – especially at the end-stage of life – or, in other words, one which is compassionate, loving, humane, and merciful and one which acknowledges a human right to dignity.