Autonomy and Love in Bioethics

Decision-making, e.g. about the treatment of somebody in a coma, often becomes a massive burden for the near relatives or the partner of such a person. Which weight should be given to their point of view, in contrast to the person's own advance health care directive or the opinion of the physician in charge? Many more problems of patient autonomy have to be addressed differently, if love is taken into account. The workshop Autonomy and Love in Bioethics shall discuss such questions. It will take place on March 12, 2012 in room G 1.32 (Geiststrasse 24-26). If you are interested in taking part, please get in touch with the office of the Centre.

Autonomy and Love

Recent debate in bioethics has often—and for good reason—focused on the concept of autonomy. However, in a number of bioethical contexts, e.g. proxy decisions, ethics of care, human experimentation with people unable to give their consent, or living donation in close personal relationships, the phenomenon of love can play a crucial role as well. Thus, the question arises of how these contexts are to be analyzed and assessed if not only autonomy but also love shall be accounted for adequately. 

However, this raises another and more fundamental question. For, different conceptions of love may have different implications in their respective relationship to autonomy. Basically, three influential strands of how to analyze love have to be taken into account: individualistic notions, conceptions of love as union, and interpersonal conceptions. In what way, then, do these different accounts of love relate to autonomy and a person’s self, especially when social relational conditions and theoretical approaches based on the importance of interpersonal recognition are to be acknowledged? 

The aim of the workshop is to address this fundamental question and to discuss possible conclusions on how to assess specific bioethical problems when autonomy as well as love is at stake.

 Programm

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