ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that many of the criticisms of bioethics have arisen from a failure to give sufficient recognition to the different voices within it, and suggests that the future of bioethics rests on possibilities of harmony between different voices, as opposed to either unison on the one hand, or discord on the other. There seem to be three distinct possibilities for the status of bioethics in disciplinary terms. First, bioethics may be considered to be a branch of an existing discipline. Secondly, bioethics may be seen as a multidisciplinary field. Finally, might bioethics be considered a metadiscipline? Misunderstandings are apt to arise concerning the relationship between ‘bioethics’ and ‘bioethicists’. If ‘bioethicist’ is taken to mean someone who has a certain type of expertise on the issues, someone who is a professional qua bioethicist, however, then it is necessary to be clear about exactly what sort of expertise is involved, without concluding prematurely that there is no relevant expertise.
