The Foundations of Bioethics

Title: The Foundations of Bioethics
ABP identifier: ABP-W-0024
Date: 1986
Type: Book
Description: Engelhardt offered a systematic and deliberately controversial account of secular bioethics in a morally plural society. He argued that people divided by fundamental moral commitments cannot appeal to one content-rich morality as a common authority.
Intellectual stream: Principles & methods; Law & public policy
Verification status: Verified
Evidence confidence: High
Historical significance: Engelhardt offered a systematic and deliberately controversial account of secular bioethics in a morally plural society. He argued that people divided by fundamental moral commitments cannot appeal to one content-rich morality as a common authority. Permission and voluntary agreement therefore carry much of the burden of legitimate cooperation among “moral strangers.” The book became an important counterpoint to principle-based approaches that assumed more shared moral ground. Its historical significance lies in forcing American bioethics to confront pluralism, authority, and the limits of public moral consensus. Later editions changed parts of the argument, so this record identifies the 1986 first edition that entered the field’s formative methodological debates.