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Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy

COVID-19 has turned many ethical principles and presuppositions upside down. More precisely, the principle of respect for autonomy has been shown to be ill suited to face the ethical challenges posed by the current health crisis. Individual wishes and choices have been subordinated to public interes...

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Autores principales: Gómez-Vírseda, Carlos, Usanos, Rafael Amo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8233626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34173944
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10035-2
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author Gómez-Vírseda, Carlos
Usanos, Rafael Amo
author_facet Gómez-Vírseda, Carlos
Usanos, Rafael Amo
author_sort Gómez-Vírseda, Carlos
collection PubMed
description COVID-19 has turned many ethical principles and presuppositions upside down. More precisely, the principle of respect for autonomy has been shown to be ill suited to face the ethical challenges posed by the current health crisis. Individual wishes and choices have been subordinated to public interests. Patients have received trial therapies under extraordinary procedures of informed consent. The principle of respect for autonomy, at least in its mainstream interpretation, has been particularly questioned during this pandemic. Further reflection on the nature and value of autonomy is urgently needed. Relational autonomy has been proposed as an alternative account of autonomy that can more adequately respond to contemporary ethical issues in general and to a pandemic such as the one we are currently facing in particular. As relational autonomy is an emerging notion in current bioethics, it requires further consideration and development to be properly operationalized. This paper aims to show how six different philosophical branches––namely, philosophy of nature, philosophical anthropology, existential phenomenology, discourse ethics, hermeneutics, and cultural anthropology––have incorporated the category of relation throughout the twentieth century. We first delve into primary philosophical sources and then apply their insights to the specific field of medical ethics. Learning from the historical developments of other philosophical fields may provide illumination that will enable bioethics to experience a successful “relational turn”, which has been partially initiated in contemporary bioethics but not yet achieved.
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spelling pubmed-82336262021-06-28 Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy Gómez-Vírseda, Carlos Usanos, Rafael Amo Med Health Care Philos Scientific Contribution COVID-19 has turned many ethical principles and presuppositions upside down. More precisely, the principle of respect for autonomy has been shown to be ill suited to face the ethical challenges posed by the current health crisis. Individual wishes and choices have been subordinated to public interests. Patients have received trial therapies under extraordinary procedures of informed consent. The principle of respect for autonomy, at least in its mainstream interpretation, has been particularly questioned during this pandemic. Further reflection on the nature and value of autonomy is urgently needed. Relational autonomy has been proposed as an alternative account of autonomy that can more adequately respond to contemporary ethical issues in general and to a pandemic such as the one we are currently facing in particular. As relational autonomy is an emerging notion in current bioethics, it requires further consideration and development to be properly operationalized. This paper aims to show how six different philosophical branches––namely, philosophy of nature, philosophical anthropology, existential phenomenology, discourse ethics, hermeneutics, and cultural anthropology––have incorporated the category of relation throughout the twentieth century. We first delve into primary philosophical sources and then apply their insights to the specific field of medical ethics. Learning from the historical developments of other philosophical fields may provide illumination that will enable bioethics to experience a successful “relational turn”, which has been partially initiated in contemporary bioethics but not yet achieved. Springer Netherlands 2021-06-26 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8233626/ /pubmed/34173944 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10035-2 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Scientific Contribution
Gómez-Vírseda, Carlos
Usanos, Rafael Amo
Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
title Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
title_full Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
title_fullStr Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
title_full_unstemmed Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
title_short Relational autonomy: lessons from COVID-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
title_sort relational autonomy: lessons from covid-19 and twentieth-century philosophy
topic Scientific Contribution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8233626/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34173944
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10035-2
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