Does Ethical Theory Have a Future in Bioethics?

Although there has long been a successful and stable marriage between philosophical ethical theory and bioethics, the marriage has become shaky as bioethics has become a more interdisciplinary and practical field. A practical price is paid for theoretical generality in philosophy. It is often unclear whether and, if so, how theory is to be brought to bear on dilemmatic problems, public policy, moral controversies, and moral conflict. Three clearly philosophical problems are used to see how philosophers are doing in handling practical problems: Cultural Relativity, and Moral Universality, Moral Justification, and Conceptual Analysis. In each case it is argued that philosophers need to develop theories and methods more closely attuned to practice. The work of philosophers such as Ruth Macklin, Norman Daniels, and Gerald Dworkin is examined. In the writings of each there is major methological gap between philosophical theory (or method) and practical conclusions. The future of philosophical ethics in interdisciplinary bioethics may turn on whether such gaps can be closed. If not, bioethics may justifiably conclude that philosophy is of little value.     

Bioethics from a social perspective: European Biopolitics Conference]

The European Congress on biopolitics entitled "Connecting civil society implementing basic values" was held in March 2006 in Berlin. It was organised by the Heinrich B?ll foundation and the Institut Mensch, Ethik und Wissenschaft. The aim of the Congress was to provide a forum for discussion on the ethical and social aspects derived from biotechnology and genetics on human beings. This work summarises some of the aspects that reveal the international interest and relevance of this meeting.     

Photographs of the human face and broken projective symmetry

The exact projective symmetry manifested in photographs is broken if the object is not flat. It has been found that front view perspectives of the human face, photographed with limited variations in camera angle (within 30 degrees) show a breaking projective symmetry sufficiently small to be considered for accurate comparison. As a practical implementation of this new approach, a computer-controlled video camera superimposition technique has been developed and demonstrated in the identification of a disguised human face.     

Bioethics: A Field in Transition

Bioethics is clearly a field in transition, if not confusion. The author examines two questions at the core of this transition. First, how will bioethics accommodate the different training needs and professional interests of those who understand themselves to be primarily scholars of bioethics, and those who understand themselves to be primarily practitioners of bioethics? And second, whether bioethics will continue to function as an interdisciplinary field or whether it will morph into a discipline in its own right.     

Bioethics and the National Security State

In previous work, I have described the history and ethics of human experiments for national security purposes during he cold war and developed the bioethical issues that will be apparent in the "war on terror". This paper is an attempt to bring these two previous lines of work together under the rubric of the "national security state," a concept familiar to Cold War historians and political scientists. The founding of the national security state was associated with the first articulations of informed consent requirements by national security agencies. My analysis indicates that strengthened consent standards, though conventionally thought to be antithetical crisis, can be seen as an attempt by the postwar national security state to protect itself from critics of expanded governmental power. During the coming years the renewed mission of the national security state in the war on terror should impel students of bioethics to consider its implications for the field.