University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Med Philos. 2020 Jul 29;45(4-5):441-470. doi: 10.1093/jmp/jhaa014.
Principlism, the bioethical theory championed by Tom Beauchamp and James Childress, is centered on the four moral principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice. Two key processes related to these principles are specification-adding specific content to general principles-and balancing-determining the relative weight of conflicting principles. I argue that both of these processes necessarily involve an appeal to human goods and evils, and therefore require a theory of the good. A significant problem with principlism is that it lacks a theory of the good and consequently does not have an adequate solution to the problems of specification and balancing. My conclusion is that principlism must adopt some account of human well-being in order to be a satisfactory bioethical framework.
原则主义，由汤姆·贝彻姆和詹姆斯·恰尔德斯所倡导的生物伦理学理论，以四个道德原则为中心：善行、不伤害、尊重自主权和公正。与这些原则相关的两个关键过程是具体说明——为一般原则添加具体内容，以及平衡——确定冲突原则的相对权重。我认为这两个过程都必然涉及对人类利益和弊端的诉求，因此需要一种善的理论。原则主义的一个显著问题是，它缺乏一种善的理论，因此无法对具体说明和平衡问题提供充分的解决方案。我的结论是，原则主义必须采用某种人类幸福理论，才能成为一个令人满意的生物伦理学框架。
