ABSTRACT
In the first chapter of this book we looked at the conception bioethicists have of the enterprise on which they are engaged. We saw that they present the aim or object of that enterprise as one of resolving the substantive moral issues to which medical practice gives rise; the business of medical ethics, according to them, is to provide the rational answers to certain moral questions-the answers, that is, which can be justified from the standpoint of reason or rationality. Implicit in the bioethical account of medical ethics is the attribution to medical ethicistsprofessional philosophers-of moral expertise. Philosophers, the account implies, possess a special competence in relation to moral matters which is analogous to the special competence doctors possess in relation to medical matters. It is for philosophers, therefore, to settle moral disagreements and resolve moral dilemmas; they must uncover the verdict of philosophy itself upon the matters at issue.
