At the confluence of ethics, laws and society: global working theory merging bio-ethics

Abstract

The pressing global challenges facing humanity highlight the urgency of reconciling medicine, society and ecology. By shedding light on the role of theories of translation and justification, the intention here is to show the potential usefulness of an in situ bioethics that reconciles practices in medicine and ecology. Science and policy should be reassembled in hybrid working theories developed, adopted and reframed by/for Society. Yet, a major challenge emerges from translating ethics, sciences, and economics claims, both within expert and lay milieus. This paper proposes foundational pillars for operationalizing the Potterian view of global bioethics. Van Rensselaer Potter challenged the perspective that compartmentalizes values, knowledge and laws, proposing ways to bridge them by linking appreciative, descriptive, and normative knowledge. The missing link, however, is a coherent governance process that coordinates the thinking, ordering, and enacting in the world. Based on an extensive revision of the Potterian legacy and action-research case studies, this article applies the Global theoretical view in the complex in situ practice of bioethics. Little known outside the world of academic bioethics, Potter’s primarily scientific curriculum helps translate and operationalize the socio-political reflections of notable contemporary philosophers of science and critical social theoreticians such as Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, John Rawls, Bruno Latour and Jürgen Habermas. In this era of mass communication, government education programs, and large-scale research funding, I propose a conceptual framework for operating a Community-based Global Bio-Ethics, echoing the 60th anniversary of Habermas’ call for The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962).