生物伦理学能为卫生政策提供什么？

University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Milbank Q. 1991;69(2):233-51.

The field of bioethics has quickly become a subject of intense public fascination; and, following on an earlier period of resistance and skepticism, bioethics has been welcomed by clinicians as well. Bioethics, however, is largely a practical activity rather than a scholarly one, and its pretensions as an academic discipline within health policy and health services research must be greeted cautiously. Continuing problems in moral theory suggest that the most secure contributions that bioethics can make to health policy research are analysis and criticism rather than positive moral claims.

生物伦理学领域迅速成为公众强烈关注的对象；而且，在经历了早期的抵制和怀疑之后，生物伦理学也受到了临床医生的欢迎。然而，生物伦理学在很大程度上是一项实践活动而非学术活动，对于其作为卫生政策和卫生服务研究领域一门学科的自诩，必须谨慎看待。道德理论中持续存在的问题表明，生物伦理学对卫生政策研究最可靠的贡献是分析和批评，而非正面的道德主张。