ABSTRACT
This chapter will discuss the role of moral imagination as faculty of the soul in bioethics. We will elaborate the suggestion of Solomon Benatar that especially in the current global context of bioethics, greater moral imagination is needed to alter our outlook and actions. Global health is in a deplorable state, whereas there are significant scientific and technological advances, economic growth in many countries, and substantial philanthropic aid. At the same time, the benefits of global progress are not equally distributed, with increasing disparities, exploitation, corruption, and poor governance. The major challenge for global health, according to Benatar, is lack of moral imagination. Innovative approaches are necessary on the basis of an expanded and creative imagination. A growing number of bioethicists today argue that bioethics should rethink its agenda. It should change its focus on topics arising in wealthy countries and address common global issues. Bioethics should develop into a critical discipline that examines the social, economic, and political processes that determine bioethical problems. It is too distanced from the values of ordinary people and too far from the social contexts in which problems arise. The current environment of injustice and inequality frequently denies the fruits of science and medicine to many people. But what could be a different approach in bioethics? How to envision an ethical discourse that takes into account the soul?
