Bioethics without analogy

Robert Hunt Sprinkle

pp. 71-85

in: Clinical ethics and the necessity of stories, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

Arguments by analogy are prominent features of bioethical literature. In the United States, dispositive analogies have greatly affected health policy and health law and, sometimes, bioethical reasoning itself. Analogical argument has deep roots and the effort to avoid its misapplication a long history. An alternative approach, exemplified by clinical-ethical practice in the Hippocratic and phenomenological traditions, is presented and recommended.