Clinical bioethics: Analysis of a practice

dc.contributor.advisorEngelhardt, H. Tristram, Jr.en_US
dc.creatorRasmussen, Lisa Marieen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-06-04T08:17:30Zen_US
dc.date.available2009-06-04T08:17:30Zen_US
dc.date.issued2003en_US
dc.description.abstractThis project is a philosophical analysis of the practice of bioethics consultation---what might be called the philosophy of bioethics. It assesses claims made about the purposes and appropriate aims of the field, in order to establish whether an identifiable conceptual unity underlies the practice. The conclusion is that no such unity exists. The project begins by assessing the history of the field, in the hope that a historical analysis will explain why the field arose at all, which reason could then be used as a basis for claiming a particular purpose for bioethics consultation. However, it becomes clear that history has bequeathed diverse and sometimes conflicting goals to bioethics consultation. History suggests that the field exists both as a service to physicians and as a service to patients, though the interests of these two parties may be in tension. This work also assesses contemporary accounts of bioethics consultation (including the recent Core Competencies for Healthcare Ethics Consultation ) and shows that they are radically divergent and incommensurable, in addition to often being too vague to guide the practice. An investigation of possible philosophical arguments regarding bioethics consultation also fails to disclose a single coherent foundation for the field. The project ends with a conceptual geography of twelve possible roles a bioethics consultant may play, and finds that though some are in tension, none may be ruled out of court on independent grounds in the absence of an overarching account of the appropriate aims of the field. What this project demonstrates is that there is no conceptual unity underlying the practice of bioethics consultation. Instead, the enterprise must be understood as comprised of a plurality of roles serving a diversity of purposes and a heterogeneity of goods with no single uniting purpose.en_US
dc.format.extent214 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS PHIL. 2003 RASMUSSENen_US
dc.identifier.citationRasmussen, Lisa Marie. "Clinical bioethics: Analysis of a practice." (2003) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/18601">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/18601</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/18601en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectPhilosophyen_US
dc.titleClinical bioethics: Analysis of a practiceen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentPhilosophyen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineHumanitiesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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