Bioethics and Politics: Rules of Engagement

摘要

In the target article, Mark Brown (2009) focuses on commoninterest democratic values and their role in understanding contemporary bioethics. Brown’s analysis is a welcome alternative to the more familiar partisan politicization discourse (focused on left versus right, liberal versus conservative). Indeed, his analysis serves to clarify the main concerns of participants in this often confused and abrasive debate: for those on the right, so-called liberalism focuses on putatively neutral procedures that in fact address substantive questions, but surreptitiously; for those on the left, so-called communitarianism overreaches in defending substantive worldviews that rob citizens of voice and choice. In this commentary,we critique this division of ‘liberal’ versus ‘conservative’ bioethics. In its place, we build on Brown’s analysis to articulate some specific rules necessary for public bioethics bodies to serve as institutions for contesting power in useful and appropriate ways.