Abortion, euthanasia, and the limits of principlism

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Medical Ethics
• Ethical Frameworks

Background:

• Principlism has been a dominant ethical framework in bioethics for 50 years.
• Debates exist regarding the scope and limitations of principlism.
• Application of principlism to contentious issues like abortion and euthanasia is common.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the extent to which principlism guides abortion and euthanasia debates.
• To identify methodological problems in applying principlism to these specific ethical issues.
• To propose a more modest scope for principlism in contemporary bioethics.

Main Methods:

• Critical analysis of existing scholarly attempts to apply principlism to abortion and euthanasia.
• Examination of the inherent limitations of principlism in resolving complex policy debates.
• Conceptual review of the appropriate application and scope of principlism in bioethics.

Main Results:

• Principlism is useful for structuring bioethical discourse but does not resolve abortion and euthanasia debates.
• Scholarly efforts to apply principlism to abortion and euthanasia face methodological challenges.
• Existing applications of principlism in these areas are often overly broad.

Conclusions:

• Principlism's utility in bioethics is best served by a more modest and focused application.
• The framework alone is insufficient for resolving deeply contested ethical and legal issues.
• A revised understanding of principlism's scope is needed for academic bioethics and medical education.