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17The Scope and Implications of Morals Not KnowledgeZygon 54 (3): 665-679. 2019.I greatly appreciate the opportunity provided by the editor of Zygon to further develop the ideas in my book Morals Not Knowledge: Recasting the Contemporary U.S. Conflict between Religion and Science in conversation with four critical commentaries. It is an honor to have one's work focused upon so intently, and I greatly appreciate the time and effort of the critics. The book was quite intentionally written as a provocation, an attempt at agenda setting, and as a call for changing the thinking …Read more
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Sociology and ChristianityIn J. B. Stump & Alan G. Padgett (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 344-355. 2012.This chapter contains sections titled: * Relationships between Christianity and Sociology * Cell 1: Maintaining the Idea Boundary While Admitting the Influence of Christian Ideas on Sociological Work * Cell 2: Maintaining the Idea Boundary While Admitting the Sociological Influence on Christian Activity * Cell 3: The Influence of Christian Ideas on Sociological Ideas * Cell 4: The Influence of Sociological Ideas on Christian Ideas * Conclusion * References * Further Reading
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1Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Bioethics, 1959-1995Dissertation, Princeton University. 1998.At the beginning of this century Max Weber concluded that institutions in Western societies were being transformed from substantively rational to formally rational. Many scholars following Weber have expanded his insights into other spheres, with some noting that even our collective values were becoming subject to formal rationality. How this process actually occurs has remained unexamined. In this dissertation I examine the transformation from 1959-1995 in the form of rationality employed in th…Read more
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1The tension between progressive bioethics and religionIn Jonathan D. Moreno & Sam Berger (eds.), Progress in Bioethics: Science, Policy, and Politics, Mit Press. pp. 119--141. 2010.
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16Personhood and the Public’s Definitions of a HumanAmerican Journal of Bioethics 24 (1): 49-51. 2024.Blumenthal-Barby (2024) argues that the concept of personhood should not be used in bioethics, and part of her justification is that personhood is not consistent with the public’s values. In this c...
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6Defending the Jurisdiction of the Clinical EthicistJournal of Clinical Ethics 25 (1): 20-31. 2014.In this essay I suggest that the bioethics profession’s jurisdiction over healthcare ethics consultation is in need of reinforcement. I argue that as the profession becomes more successful, competitors will challenge the profession to justify its ethical claims and ask whose ethics the profession represents. This challenge will come more quickly as the profession tries to influence the ethics of healthcare organizations. I propose a method of bolstering jurisdiction that will make the profession…Read more
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4Response to Callahan and WinsladeJournal of Clinical Ethics 25 (1): 41-42. 2014.I respond to commentaries by Daniel Callahan and William J. Winslade on my article, “Defending the Jurisdiction of the Clinical Ethicist,” all of which are in this issue of JCE.
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24Medical commitments ceremoniesJournal of Medical Ethics 28 (5): 329-329. 2002.I read Raanan Gillon’s piece on the defence of medical commitments ceremonies with interest.1 I was, however, disturbed to see that in the …
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18Who legitimately Speaks for religion in public bioethics?In David E. Guinn (ed.), Handbook of bioethics and religion, Oxford University Press. 2006.This chapter discusses the various meanings of the two critical ideas in this book and compares them. These critical ideas are “religion” and “public bioethics”. The chapter focuses most of all not on the different religious roles, but on what we think “public bioethics” is or should be.
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30The two meanings of how and the Gene patenting debateAmerican Journal of Bioethics 2 (3). 2002.This Article does not have an abstract
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54The theological debate over human enhancement: An empirical case study of a mediating organizationZygon 55 (3): 615-637. 2020.For most theologians, theology should ultimately be used by the laity and/or the public. However, the religion and science debate has not focused on the divide between theologians and the laity. In this case study I examine the debate among theologians about human enhancement. I focus on the extent to which the structure of the debate in a “mediating organization” between the theologians and the public coincides with the structure of the debate among the theologians. I conduct a survey of partic…Read more
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18The Social Context of Religion in the Jurisdictions of BioethicsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 20 (12): 1-4. 2020.In this issue, McCarthy, Homan and Rozier make the case for re-stablishing the relationship between theological and secular bioethics. I find MHR to be quite...
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38The Empirical Examination of the Social Process of Genetic Enhancement, Objectification, and MaltreatmentAmerican Journal of Bioethics 19 (7): 32-34. 2019.Volume 19, Issue 7, July 2019, Page 32-34.
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22Power and Representation of the Public's Values in a Social Implications of Research CommissionAmerican Journal of Bioethics 11 (5): 10-11. 2011.
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14New Barriers on the Slippery Slope?American Journal of Bioethics 20 (8): 19-21. 2020.Volume 20, Issue 8, August 2020, Page 19-21.
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32Playing God? Human Genetic Engineering and the Rationalization of Public Bioethical DebateJournal of the Society of Christian Ethics 24 (1): 183-217. 2004.
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17The Public’s Ethical Issues with Brain Organoid Research and ApplicationAmerican Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 13 (2): 101-103. 2022.Sawai et al. (2022) provide a good summary of the bioethical debate about brain organoids with an eye toward future directions. Like many contemporary texts in bioethics, they call for engagement w...
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58Between technocracy and democratic legitimation: A proposed compromise position for common morality public bioethicsJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 31 (3). 2006.In this article I explore the underlying political philosophy of public bioethics by comparing it to technocratic authority, particularly the technocratic authority claimed by economists in Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s. I find that public bioethics - at least in the dominant forms - is implicitly designed for and tries to use technocratic authority. I examine how this type of bioethics emerged and has continued. I finish by arguing that, as claims to technocratic authority go, bioethics is in a…Read more
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23Between Technocracy and Democratic Legitimation: A Proposed Compromise Position for Common Morality Public BioethicsJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 31 (3): 213-234. 2006.
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32A Sociological Account of the Growth of PrinciplismHastings Center Report 30 (5): 31-39. 2000.Bioethicists’ attraction to principlism is rooted in a Western view of how matters that affect the public ought to be deliberated and decided: their resolution ought to be so structured and constrained that it can be understood and verified even by those at a remove from the circumstances of the problem. That view of deliberation, itself fostered by the Western view of government, has encouraged principlism to spread from its source in human subjects research into other areas of bioethics discou…Read more
Areas of Interest
Metaphysics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
General Philosophy of Science |