Threats to the Common Good: Biochemical Weapons and Human Subjects Research

The threat of biological and chemical terrorism highlights a growing tension in research ethics between respecting the interests of individuals and safeguarding and protecting the common good. But what it actually means to protect the common good is rarely scrutinized. There are two conceptions of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Hastings Center report Vol. 33; no. 5; pp. 17 - 25
Main Author London, Alex John
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2003
The Hastings Center
Hastings Center
Subjects
Biochemistry
Biological weapons
Biomedical Research - ethics
Bioterrorism
Chemical Warfare Agents
Chemical weapons
Common good
Communities
Health aspects
Human Experimentation
Humans
Medical research
Morality
Normativity
Political philosophy
Prevention
Smallpox
Social Justice - ethics
Social medicine
United States
Utilitarianism
Vaccination
Weapons
United States
Biomedical and Behavioral Research
War and Human Rights Abuses
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Summary:The threat of biological and chemical terrorism highlights a growing tension in research ethics between respecting the interests of individuals and safeguarding and protecting the common good. But what it actually means to protect the common good is rarely scrutinized. There are two conceptions of the common good that provide very different accounts of the limits of permissible medical research. Decisions about the limits of acceptable medical research in defense of the common good should be carried out only within the latter framework.
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ISSN:0093-0334
1552-146X
DOI:10.2307/3528632