Public engagement and bioethics as natural allies

This article offers an original theoretical basis for the claim that public engagement and bioethics are natural allies. It draws on Walker's expressive-collaborative model, which conceptualises morality as a social reality in which differently situated individuals continuously negotiate moral understandings and shared responsibilities to sustain social equilibrium. By highlighting the collective, dialogic, and interpretative nature of moral reasoning-and the epistemic partiality of all actors, including experts-it underscores the necessity of intersubjective processes for achieving legitimate and inclusive governance in bioethics. Deliberative forms of engagement materialise this approach by fostering moral knowledge co-production among individuals with unequally distributed authority over moral claims, thereby helping mitigate epistemic power imbalances between laypeople and experts. Realising this democratic ideal, however, requires rethinking engagement practices that are often expert-driven and work in silos (i.e., engaging citizens and experts separately). This limits the potential for mutual learning and the reconfiguration of moral knowledge to reflect the societal values, needs, and concerns. Instead, engagement practices should stress the interdependence and complementarity of laypeople and experts in solving complex ethical issues.