ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three possible ‘models’ to use as a way to ground and discuss how we could approach thinking about bioethics in Europe. Each of the three proposed models is based around a single key concept as follows: authority, markets and society. The chapter focuses on individual clinician-patient encounters, with a particular focus on the issue of consent; although, it suggests that all issues in bioethics, including those in clinical medicine, ought to be approached from the perspective of a more societal ethics. A European bioethics that is focused on thinking about ethics in a societal context can appeal to ‘embedded’ values that have not been discussed in much normative work. Such values will include things such as equity, solidarity, needs, trust, reciprocity and common goods.
