{"id":12766,"date":"1994-05-14T18:44:00","date_gmt":"1994-05-15T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=12766"},"modified":"2023-02-07T11:06:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T19:06:22","slug":"bioethics-private-choice-and-common-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=12766","title":{"rendered":"Bioethics: Private Choice and Common Good"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Daniel Callahan<\/h4>\n\n\n
\n
\"The
The Hastings Center Report<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Extract<\/strong>
There is a peculiar and disturbing feature of our times. On the one hand, biomedicine unceasingly extends its power to shape our lives and our culture. . . On the other hand, our protean selves and malleable culture are themselves more wary than ever about responding to that challenge with what might be the only means at our disposal: the search for some coherent, plausible view of what constitutes the good of human beings and their societies. In the absence of such a view, all the real power is in the hands of science, which can decisively bring about fundamental changes even without aiming deliberately to do so. Only an understanding of the self that has substance and direction can fight back, setting its own counteragenda. Choice alone cannot do that. For its part also, a society that itself lacks a compass, devoted only to fostering a minimalist civic accord, is in no less vulnerable a position. If there is no common picture of what biomedicine can do to foster a good human life-if the very question of what constitutes such a life has been banished in the name of pluralism-then that life will be pushed about in ways it is helpless to control, a frail ship that has lost its direction on a stormy, confused sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Callahan D. Bioethics: Private Choice and Common Good<\/a>. Hastings Cent Rep. 1994 May-Jun;24(3):28-31. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Callahan ExtractThere is a peculiar and disturbing feature of our times. On the one hand, biomedicine unceasingly extends its power to shape our lives and our culture. . . On the other hand, our protean selves and malleable culture are themselves more wary than ever about responding to that challenge with what might be … Continue reading “Bioethics: Private Choice and Common Good”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[554,659,988,684],"tags":[1871],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ethics","category-philosophy","category-research-centre-publications","category-science","tag-daniel-callahan"],"yoast_head":"\r\nBioethics: Private Choice and Common Good - Protection of Conscience Project Library<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We need some coherent, plausible view of what constitutes the good of human beings and their societies to control bioscientific developments.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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