Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Undermining the enterprise of bioethics

"When politicians insist that they cannot allow their private, religious convictions to influence bioethical policies, the clear implication is that science and philosophy can shed very little light on the moral status of the embryo. Such weighty questions are simply trapped in the darkness of religious metaphysics. Yet, those on the bioethical Left have provided no justification for taking such a dim view of human reason. Worse still, they have quietly undermined the entire enterprise of bioethics, which must begin with the assumption that human reason can shed light on such questions."

-- Jon Shields, Claremont McKenna College