Rich Bioethics

Public Policy, Biotechnology, and the Kass Council
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-0-268-02221-1
Verlag: University of Notre Dame Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 343 g

Several presidents have created bioethics councils to advise their administrations on the importance, meaning and possible implementation or regulation of rapidly developing biomedical technologies. From 2001 to 2005, the President's Council on Bioethics, created by President George W. Bush, was under the leadership of Leon Kass. The Kass Council, as it was known, undertook what Adam Briggle describes as a more rich understanding of its task than that of previous councils. The council sought to understand what it means to advance human flourishing at the intersection of philosophy, politics, science, and technology within a democratic society.

Briggle's survey of the history of U.S. public bioethics and advisory bioethics commissions, followed by an analysis of what constitutes a "rich" bioethics, forms the first part of the book. The second part treats the Kass Council as a case study of a federal institution that offered public, ethical advice within a highly polarized context, with the attendant charges of inappropriate politicization and policy irrelevance. The conclusion synthesizes the author's findings into a story about the possible relationships between philosophy and policy making.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Briggle, Adam

Über Autor(innen)

Adam Briggle is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy and Religion Studies Department at the University of North Texas. He has a PhD in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Science and Technology Policy research from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Briggle spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow in the philosophy department at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. His research lies at the intersections of science, technology, ethics, and politics.