Hugur - 01.01.2014, Blaðsíða 59

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Abstract
How is Ethics Applied? Approaches, problems and challenges
In this article, the methodology of applied ethics is discussed, in particular in
light of bioethics and ethics of health care. Drawing on the influential theory of
Beauchamp and Childress, a distinction is made between three main approaches
to moral analysis of ethical issues, they are described and critically evaluated. The
three approaches chosen are application of moral theories and principles, analysis
of situations and cases, and deliberation of moral judgments aiming at reflective
equilibrium. It is argued that a modest use of moral theories and principles can
be of help in ethical analysis, but the tyrannic tendency to apply them from above
without sense for the subject matter has been damaging for applied ethics. The
value of the second approach is seen to reside in a careful analysis of the facts
of the cases under scrutiny, while its weakness lies in adherence to the norms of
existing practices, lacking critical distance. It is argued that the third approach
has ways to overcome the shortcomings of the other two approaches by sensibly
combining the critical normative force of our common moral obligations with an
evaluation of the features of the situation under moral consideration.
In the last section of the paper, critical reflections, the question is discussed,
whether all these three methods suffer from a rather narrow approach to the
subject matters of applied ethics and must be complemented with critical theo-
retical perspectives. Here I have in mind critical social theories that would enable
applied ethics to analyse the issue in a wider sociopolitical context which main-
stream approaches tend to lose sight of. These critical perspectives would bring
to the fore the various special issues that are in the background of biotechnical
research in contemporary society, the social discourses and the economy of hope
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