Prolegomena to Any Future Code of Ethics for Bioethics

Abstract

If bioethicists, qua bioethicists, restrict themselves to the humble but honorable task of education and delimit their authority accordingly, they will be on solid ethical ground. Moreover, by adopting and professing this role, bioethicists should ensure that they will continue to be held in high regard by those who, suspicious of partisans and advocates, will turn to them for help, not for certainties and answers, to be sure, and certainly not for moral authority, but rather for a measure of clarity and distinctness in an increasingly complex world. What the bioethicist is rightfully authorized to do or say speaking-as-a-bioethicist is valuable enough and can make a difference.