Medical Ethics and Moral Philosophy in an Era of Bioethics

Abstract

Medical ethics, the traditional professional ethic of the physician, is some 2,500 years old. Bioethics, its contemporary rival and partner, is barely half a century old. Each functions under the rubric of “ethics”; each purports to provide guidance to society on the moral uses of the unprecedented powers of modern biology. Yet, each construes “ethics” in its own way. Neither supports a robust moral philosophy with which to justify its moral dicta or define the boundaries of its moral pretensions. What seems clear is that bioethics seems destined to continue its prodigious growth and influence while its ancient predecessor, medical ethics, is undergoing slow but definite erosion. Both, however, are moving progressively away from classical ethics as the disciplined study of right and wrong, and good and bad human conduct. This essay examines this evolving state of affairs from four points of view: (1) the sociocultural environment which begat bioethics and reshaped medical ethics; (2) the evolving character of bioethics as a new field of study; (3) the transformations of traditional medical ethics by the same sociocultural forces that begat bioethics; and (4) the place, if any, of moral philosophy in preserving the ethical integrity of both medical ethics and bioethics.