1. A defense of fundamental principles and human rights: a reply to Robert Baker.
- Author
-
Macklin R
- Subjects
- Advisory Committees, Altruism, Asia, Beneficence, Circumcision, Male, Coercion, Dissent and Disputes, Female, Freedom, Germany, Group Processes, History, History, 20th Century, Humans, Informed Consent, Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation, Personal Autonomy, Physicians, Politics, Principle-Based Ethics, Public Policy, Research Personnel, Research Subjects, Social Responsibility, Social Welfare, United States, Women, Women's Rights, Bioethics, Cultural Diversity, Ethical Analysis, Ethical Relativism, Ethical Theory, Ethics, Human Experimentation, Human Rights, International Cooperation, Internationality, Morals, National Socialism, Philosophy, Political Systems, Postmodernism, Professional Misconduct, Radiation, Retrospective Moral Judgment, Scientific Misconduct, Social Values, Western World
- Abstract
This article seeks to rebut Robert Baker's contention that attempts to ground international bioethics in fundamental principles cannot withstand the challenges posed by multiculturalism and postmodernism. First, several corrections are provided of Baker's account of the conclusions reached by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Second, a rebuttal is offered to Baker's claim that an unbridgeable moral gap exists between Western individualism and non-Western communalism. In conclusion, this article argues that Baker's "nonnegotiable primary goods" cannot do the work of "classical human rights" and that the latter framework is preferable from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint.
- Published
- 1998
- Full Text
- View/download PDF