Turner Leigh
Biomedical Ethics Unit and Department of Social Studies in Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 2003 Sep;13(3):193-218. doi: 10.1353/ken.2003.0023.
Many bioethicists assume that morality is in a state of wide reflective equilibrium. According to this model of moral deliberation, public policymaking can build upon a core common morality that is pretheoretical and provides a basis for practical reasoning. Proponents of the common morality approach to moral deliberation make three assumptions that deserve to be viewed with skepticism. First, they commonly assume that there is a universal, transhistorical common morality that can serve as a normative baseline for judging various actions and practices. Second, advocates of the common morality approach assume that the common morality is in a state of relatively stable, ordered, wide reflective equilibrium. Third, casuists, principlists, and other proponents of common morality approaches assume that the common morality can serve as a basis for the specification of particular policies and practical recommendations. These three claims fail to recognize the plural moral traditions that are found in multicultural, multiethnic, multifaith societies such as the United States and Canada. A more realistic recognition of multiple moral traditions in pluralist societies would be considerable more skeptical about the contributions that common morality approaches in bioethics can make to resolving contentious moral issues.
许多生物伦理学家认为，道德处于一种广泛的反思平衡状态。根据这种道德审议模式，公共政策制定可以建立在一种前理论的核心共同道德之上，这种道德为实践推理提供了基础。道德审议的共同道德方法的支持者做出了三个假设，值得怀疑。首先，他们通常假设存在一种普遍的、超越历史的共同道德，可以作为判断各种行为和实践的规范基线。其次，共同道德方法的倡导者假设共同道德处于相对稳定、有序、广泛的反思平衡状态。第三，决疑论者、原则主义者和共同道德方法的其他支持者假设共同道德可以作为制定具体政策和实践建议的基础。这三种说法没有认识到在美国和加拿大等多元文化、多民族、多信仰社会中存在的多元道德传统。对多元社会中多种道德传统的更现实认识会对生物伦理学中的共同道德方法在解决有争议的道德问题方面所能做出的贡献持相当多的怀疑态度。
