The Role of Moral Theory in Health Care Ethics

Research Network (funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council)

Being an ethicist has become a profession, especially in the health care context, for instance in clinical ethics committees. To 'do' health care ethics, however, requires a kind of expertise the nature of which is still debated and whose existence is rejected by many. Although researchers have always explored how the discipline of philosophical (purely theoretical) ethics is translated to a more applied context, they never have done so in a systematic and concerted fashion. The interdisciplinary research network on The Role of Moral Theory in Health Care Ethics, which has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, will bring together a wide range of international scholars, including philosophers, sociologists, and health care professionals.

The central focus of the network is to critically evaluate the role and significance of moral theory in health care ethics from different, interdisciplinary angles, including theoretical and practical viewpoints. It will develop a well-rounded picture of the status of moral theory in health care ethics, and it will point out shortcomings of the current practice of utilizing moral expertise, thereby enabling policy makers to think afresh about ways to put ethics into practice.

http://shsahrcproject.swan.ac.uk/

Mitglied des Steering Committee: Prof.Dr. Thomas Schramme