Читать книгу This Is Bioethics - Udo Schüklenk, Ruth F. Chadwick - Страница 21

2.26 The Georgetown Mantra isn’t actually a mantra endorsed by Georgetown University, a Jesuit college in Washington DC. It’s a nickname describing arguably the most influential biomedical ethics textbook’s four‐principles’ approach to bioethical problem solving. It is often referred to as the ‘Georgetown Mantra’ because of its leading proponents’ close affiliation with Georgetown University. Tom Beauchamp and James Childress are the authors of Principles of Biomedical Ethics; they developed this approach in successive editions of their popular textbook (2012). These authors do not claim to have developed a fully‐fledged ethical theory. However, they insist that four prima facie principles they have identified are widely recognized as sensible principles, even across cultures, and that they are compatible with various ethical theories. The Mantra combines consequentialist and deontological approaches to bioethics decision‐making. Essentially Beauchamp and Childress believe that four overarching principles suffice to address virtually every ethical problem that we are likely to encounter in bioethics.

2.27 The principles they propose are: non‐maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy and justice. Let us have a closer look at each of these principles and at how they interact with – and sometimes against – each other in order to get a better handle on the Georgetown Mantra. Keep in mind that these principles are considered prima facie by Beauchamp and Childress, that is – with good reason – every one of them can be overridden by competing stronger demands.