Bioethics and conflicts of interest

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Abstract

Bioethics has been subject to considerable social criticism in recent years. One criticism that has caused particular discomfort in the bioethics community is that bioethicists, because of the way their work is funded, are involved in profound conflicts of interest that undermine their title to be considered independent moral commentators on developments in biomedicine and biotechnology. This criticism draws its force from the assumption that bioethics is, or ought to be, a type of normative social criticism. Versions of this criticism come from both the political left and right. For instance, such criticisms include allegations that bioethics is inherently socially conservative, that it is inherently “pro-technology”, that it lays spurious claims to moral and social authority and expertise, that its focus on autonomy links it to neoliberal theories of choice, and that it is an ideological mystification of real social relationships and political power. This commentary paper analyses the problem of bioethical conflict of interest, and argues that the types of conflict of interest facing bioethics are inherent to the role of “public intellectual” that bioethicists generally wish to assume. The paper defends this conception of the role of the bioethicist, arguing that bioethicists should be interested and openly so.

Section snippets

Bioethics and conflicts of interest

Bioethics, while arguably not a unitary academic discipline, has been a major field of inquiry for more than a generation.1 As Elliott notes, bioethics and bioethicists have become ubiquitous in biotechnology and biomedicine (Elliott,

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Tim Lewens for suggesting that I write about this issue, and to Tim Lewens and John McMillan for helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. A version of this paper was read to the Swiss Society for Biomedical Ethics at their conference ‘Conscience for Sale? The Role of Bioethics in Institutions and Business’, 3 May 2003.

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