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Bioethics and Disability Rights: Conflicting Values and Perspectives

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Abstract

Continuing tensions exist between mainstream bioethics and advocates of the disability rights movement. This paper explores some of the grounds for those tensions as exemplified in From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice by Allen Buchanan and coauthors, a book by four prominent bioethicists that is critical of the disability rights movement. One set of factors involves the nature of disability and impairment. A second set involves presumptions regarding social values, including the importance of intelligence in relation to other human characteristics, competition as the basis of social organization, and the nature of the parent–child relationship. The authors’ disapproval of certain aspects of the disability rights movement can be seen to be associated with particular positions regarding these factors. Although the authors intend to use a method of ‘broad reflective equilibrium,’ we argue that their idiosyncratic commitment to particular concepts of disability and particular social values produces a narrowing of the moral significance of their conclusions regarding disability rights.

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Acknowledgements

This paper has benefited greatly from comments from three anonymous reviewers for the special issue and the special issue editor, Shelley Tremain. RA’s research for this paper was supported by National Institutes of Health grants S06-GM08073 and R03-HG3632-01A1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hawaii at Hilo, 200 West Kawili St., Hilo, HI, 96720, USA

    Ron Amundson

  2. Hilo, HI, USA

    Shari Tresky

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  1. Ron Amundson
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  2. Shari Tresky
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Correspondence to Ron Amundson.

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Amundson, R., Tresky, S. Bioethics and Disability Rights: Conflicting Values and Perspectives. Bioethical Inquiry 5, 111–123 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-008-9096-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-008-9096-3

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