University of Bergen-IGS, Bergen, Norway.
Bioethics. 2024 Mar;38(3):187-195. doi: 10.1111/bioe.13263. Epub 2024 Jan 6.
Translational ethics (TE) has been developed into a specific approach, which revolves around the argument that strategies for bridging the theory-practice gap in bioethics must themselves be justified on ethical terms. This version of TE incorporates normative, empirical and foundational ethics research and continues to develop through application and in the face of new ethical challenges. Here, I explore the idea that the academic field of bioethics has not yet sufficiently analysed its own philosophical foundation for how it can, and should, be practically relevant; neither has it comprehensively discussed the limitations on what impacts bioethicists should pursue. As a result, there has not been adequate training on how to suitably and appropriately impact real-world practices. Moreover, bioethical perspectives are often competing with other strong interests, for example, economic and political, which may weaken their impact on policy-making. The TE approach I propose can not only facilitate practical impacts of academic bioethics by being better informed by real-world ethical issues but it also supports targeted and ethical justifications of the actual impact of academic work in real-world contexts. In this paper, I clarify the premises for this TE approach, identify further challenges and sketch out potential solutions for the implementation of this methodological framework.
转化伦理学(TE)已经发展成为一种特定的方法,其核心论点是,弥合生命伦理学理论与实践之间差距的策略本身必须在伦理层面上得到证明。这种形式的 TE 结合了规范、经验和基础伦理研究,并通过应用和面对新的伦理挑战不断发展。在这里,我探讨了这样一种观点,即生命伦理学的学术领域尚未充分分析其自身的哲学基础,以了解其如何以及应该具有实际相关性;也没有全面讨论生物伦理学家应该追求的影响的局限性。因此,关于如何适当地、恰当地影响现实世界的实践,还没有足够的培训。此外,生物伦理观点经常与其他强烈的利益相竞争,例如经济和政治利益,这可能会削弱它们对决策的影响。我所提出的 TE 方法不仅可以通过更好地了解现实世界中的伦理问题来促进学术生命伦理学的实际影响,而且还可以支持在现实背景下对学术工作的实际影响进行有针对性和合乎伦理的论证。在本文中,我阐明了这种 TE 方法的前提,并进一步确定了挑战,并概述了实施这一方法框架的潜在解决方案。