Biomedical Research and Beyond: Expanding the Ethics of Inquiry (Routledge Annals of Bioethics)

242 Pages·2007·0.76 MB·English

by  Christopher Tollefsen

Biomedical Research
and Beyond
Routledge Annals of Bioethics
EDITORS
MARK J. CHERRY, St. Edwards University, Austin, Texas, USA
ANA SMITH ILTIS, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
MARY ANN GARDELL CUTTER, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado
H. TRISTRAM ENGELHARDT, JR., Rice University, Houston, Texas
RUTH GROENHOUT, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
JOHN HASNAS, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
J. CLINT PARKER, East Carolina University School of Medicine, Winterville, North Carolina
DAVID SOLOMON, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana
CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
GRIFFIN TROTTER, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri
JOHN MEADOWCROFT, King’s College, London, United Kingdom
1. Research Ethics
Edited by Ana Smith Iltis
2. Thomistic Principles and Bioethics
Jason T. Eberl
3. The Ethics of Genetic Engineering
Roberta M. Berry
4. Legal Perspectives in Bioethics
Edited by Ana S. Iltis, Sandra H. Johnson, and Barbara A. Hinze
5. Biomedical Research and Beyond
Expanding the Ethics of Inquiry
Christopher O. Tollefsen
Previous Titles:
Regional Perspectives in Bioethics
Edited by John F. Peppin and Mark J. Cherry
Religious Perspectives on Bioethics
Edited by John F. Peppin, Mark J. Cherry, and Ana Iltis
Biomedical Research
and Beyond
Expanding the Ethics of Inquiry
Christopher O. Tollefsen
New York London
First published in 2008
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Tollefsen, Christopher.
Biomedical research and beyond : expanding the ethics of inquiry / by Christopher
O. Tollefsen.
p. ; cm.— (Routledge annals of bioethics ; 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-415-96116-5 (hbk : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-415-96116-5 (hbk : alk. paper) 1. Medicine—Research—Moral and ethi-
cal aspects. 2. Biology—Research—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Research—Moral and
ethical aspects. 4. Inquiry (Theory of knowledge) I. Title. II. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Biomedical Research—ethics. W 20.5 T651b 2008]
R852.T54 2008
174.2--dc22 2007036109
ISBN 0-203-93034-7 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-96116-5 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-93034-7 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-96116-5 (hbk)
ISBN13: 987-0-203-93034-2 (ebk)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction ix
1 Is There an Ethics of Inquiry? 1
2 Core Concepts in the Ethics of Inquiry 19
3 Questions of Consent 31
4 Fairness and Truth-Telling 50
5 The Ethics of Human Embryo Research 65
6 Animal Research and Animal Rights 79
7 Coercion, Torture, Enhancement, and the Inviolability
of the Person 92
8 The Scientifi c Profession and the State 113
9 Science and the Sovereignty of the State 131
10 Humanistic and Journalistic Inquiry and the State 147
11 The Vocation, Practice, and Progress of Inquiry 164
12 The Virtues of Inquiry 178
Notes 207
Bibliography 215
Index 225

Acknowledgments
This book has benefi ted from the good will and assistance of many people. I
began thinking about the topic after receiving a grant from the South Caro-
lina Honors College in the summer of 2002 to prepare a class titled “The
Ethics of Inquiry.” I taught that course in the fall of 2002; I thank the Hon-
ors College and its students for much intellectual stimulation.
In the spring of 2004, I taught a graduate course on the work of Alasdair
MacIntyre; work from that course has made its way into this book, and
I thank the participants in that seminar. In 2004–2005, I was a fellow in
the James Madison Program at Princeton University. Much of the writing
of this book was done at Princeton; I thank my friends from the program,
and especially Robert P. George and Bradford Wilson for an exceptionally
stimulating and collegial environment. Parts of this book were read at a
seminar of the Madison Program; I thank George Kateb in particular for
helpful comments then and afterwards.
Ed Munn, Laurie Tollefsen, and Mark Cherry all read the entire man-
uscript and provided helpful comments and criticisms. Mark has been
extremely helpful in shepherding the book through to its home in the Annals
of Bioethics series. I am truly grateful.
Parts of the book have been read at the University of South Carolina,
Coastal Carolina University, Princeton University, the University of Catania,
and the Metaphysica Conference in Rome, 2003. At all these venues, I have
received much help. Thomas d’Andrea, Matteo Negro, and Gabrielle de
Anna all made especially helpful comments at a meeting of the International
Society of Law and Morality. In addition, many friends and colleagues have
read drafts of parts of the book at various times and in various stages, and I
have benefi ted from discussion with members of the Philosophy Department
of my own university in particular. I thank all of them for their invaluable
assistance.
In 2005, Fr. Juan Velez gave me some advice for fi nishing the manuscript
that proved invaluable. Without his help, it is unclear that there would be
a book.
My wife, Laurie, and my children all deserve awards, but will have to
settle for my thanks, for their support and patience.
viii Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the following for granting permission to
reproduce material in this work:
Public Affairs Quarterly, for permission to reprint Tollefsen, C. (2000). “Journalism
and the Social Good.” Public Affairs Quarterly 14: 293–307. © North American Philo-
sophical Publications.
Springer Academic Publishers, for permission to reprint Tollefsen, C. (2002). “Managed
Care and the Practice of the Professions.” In The Ethics of Managed Care, edited by W.
B. Bondeson and J. W. Jones. Dordrecht: Kluwer. © Springer.
International Philosophical Quarterly, for permission to reprint Tollefsen, C. (2006a).
“MacIntyre and the Moralization of Enquiry.” International Philosophical Quarterly
46: 421–38. © Philosophy Documentation Center.
The American Catholic Philosophical Association, for permission to reprint Tollefsen,
C. (2006b). “Persons in Time.” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 80: 107–23.
© Philosophy Documentation Center.
Introduction
Inquiry drives change. It is the means by which human beings move from
the world of today into whatever the world of the next century, the next mil-
lennium will be. And that world comes about as a result of many factors—
social, political, scientifi c, medical, moral, philosophical—all of which are
made possible by the present day’s inquiries.
This has always been the case. The transition from the pre-modern to the
modern world, a change of political, economic, technological, and religious
signifi cance, was mediated by a variety of forms of inquiry: philosophic, sci-
entifi c, historical. The medieval world was likewise a product of the forces
of inquiry, particularly those that emerged from the great universities. And
the world we live in today, a world of political autonomy, computer chips,
global economies, and communications, exists in consequence of the inqui-
ries of political theorists, computer engineers, a succession of economists,
and others. Inquiry—the sustained search for truth—is in each case the
agent of change from the old to the new.
This is clearly seen in the present day in the context of biomedical and
scientifi c inquiry. In the world of the next century, medicine and the health
sciences will have been radically transformed. Our understanding of disease,
and our ability to cure and to prevent it, will have advanced to degrees
unimaginable. Our capacity to deal with the accidents of life—the loss of
limbs in war, disfi gurements in car crashes, inherited disabilities, the dimin-
ishments of age—will be similarly transformed. We will be healthier, stron-
ger, longer-lived, and more secure. Inquiry in the biomedical sciences will
have made all such changes possible.
The chosen means of inquiry will likewise have great consequences, in
particular for our moral culture. For instance, the medical realities of the
future may depend on the widespread use of human embryos for research.
They may encompass genetic enhancements of human beings, and possibly
modifi cations of human nature. They may have been driven by an ethos of
discovery at any cost, and with no restraining hand from traditional moral-
ity, politics, or religion. In these ways and others, both the consequences and
the conduct of inquiry will change not just what is medically available to us,
but who we, as moral beings, are.