University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, Medical Education mc 591, 808 S. Wood St., Chicago, IL 60612-7309, USA.
Am J Bioeth. 2012;12(12):3-10. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2012.719262.
Some commentators have criticized bioethics as failing to engage religion both as a matter of theory and practice. Bioethics should work toward understanding the influence of religion as it represents people's beliefs and practices, but bioethics should nevertheless observe limits in regard to religion as it does its normative work. Irreligious skepticism toward religious views about health, healthcare practices and institutions, and responses to biomedical innovations can yield important benefits to the field. Irreligious skepticism makes it possible to raise questions that otherwise go unasked and to protect against the overreach of religion. In this sense, bioethics needs a vigorous irreligious outlook every bit as much as it needs descriptive understandings of religion.
一些评论家批评生物伦理学在理论和实践上都未能涉及宗教。生物伦理学应该努力理解宗教的影响，因为宗教代表了人们的信仰和实践，但生物伦理学在进行规范工作时也应该注意宗教的界限。对宗教关于健康、医疗保健实践和机构的观点以及对生物医学创新的反应持无宗教怀疑态度，可以为该领域带来重要的好处。无宗教怀疑主义使得提出否则无人会问的问题成为可能，并防止宗教的过度扩张。从这个意义上说，生物伦理学需要一种强有力的无宗教观点，就像它需要对宗教的描述性理解一样。
