RELIGST 2C03 Chapter Article : A Critique of Principalism Reading Summary

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2C03
• Professor: Shannon Buckley

Document Summary

Not guides to action > collection of related matters for consideration when dealing with a moral problem. Principles lack systematic relation to each other and often conflict unresolvable-y > not derived from a unified moral theory. Bioethics mantra: beneficence, autonomy, justice: used in the face of biomedical dilemmas. Deployment of principles of biomedical ethics (principalism: principles are below theories and above rules, follow from moral theories > generate rules used to make moral judgments. General claim: the principles function is neither an adequate alternative for moral theories, or a directive for determining morally correct action > rather, chapter headings for discussion of unrelated topics. Moral ideal of preventing or removing harm. Morally required duty: the principle however does not summarize any of these. Principalism often has several competing principles : autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, equal to using multiple opposing theories to decide a course of action.