Practical Autonomy and Bioethics (Routledge Annals of Bioethics)

228 Pages·2009·1.51 MB·English

by  James Stacey Taylor

Practical Autonomy
and Bioethics
Routledge Annals of Bioethics
EDITED BY MARK J. CHERRY, St Edwards University, USA
ANA SMITH ILTIS, Saint Louis University, USA
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4. Legal Perspectives in Bioethics
Edited by Ana S. Iltis, Sandra H.
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5. Biomedical Research and Beyond
Expanding the Ethics of Inquiry
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6. Practical Autonomy and Bioethics
James Stacey Taylor
Previous Titles:
Regional Perspectives in Bioethics
Edited by Mark J. Cherry and
John F. Peppin
Religious Perspectives on Bioethics
Edited by Mark J. Cherry, Ana Iltis, and
John F. Peppin
Practical Autonomy
and Bioethics
James Stacey Taylor
New York London
First published 2009
by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taylor, James Stacey, 1970–
Practical autonomy and bioethics / by James Stacey Taylor.
p. cm. — (Routledge annals of bioethics ; v. 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Autonomy (Psychology) 2. Autonomy (Philosophy) 3. Bioethics. I. Title.
BF575.A88T39 2009
174'.957—dc22
2009003458
ISBN 0-203-87399-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-99740-2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-87399-8 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-99740-9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-87399-1 (ebk)
For my parents, Tom and Betty

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xiii
1 A Theory of Autonomy 1
2 The Many Faces of Autonomy? 18
3 Identifi cation and Autonomy: A Tale of Two Concepts 37
4 Decisive Identifi cation 51
5 Autonomy and Normativity 63
6 Autonomy and Choice 83
7 Autonomy and Constraint 96
8 Autonomy, Privacy, and Patient Confi dentiality 114
9 Autonomy and Informed Consent 130
10 The Value of Autonomy in Bioethics 141
Conclusion 157
Notes 159
Bibliography 197
Index 207

Acknowledgments
I fi rst became interested in the nature and value of personal autonomy while
working on my MA at St. Andrews University under the tutorship of Pro-
fessor John Haldane and then Gordon Graham. The interest deepened dur-
ing my work on my MLitt dissertation at St. Andrews University under the
supervision of Sandra Marshall of the University of Stirling, and continued
during my MA and PhD work at Bowling Green State University, culmi-
nating in my doctoral dissertation on the topic of Personal Autonomy: Its
Philosophical Foundations and Role in Applied Ethics. Although none of
the arguments in those works survived the critical scrutiny that they have
subsequently been subjected to (with the exception of some of the ideas
concerning the relationship between privacy and autonomy discussed in
Chapter 8 of this volume) I thank John Haldane, Gordon Graham, Sandra
Marshall and the members of my PhD committee—R. G. Frey, the late
James W. Child, Fred D. Miller Jr., and Marina A. L. Oshana—for their
support and encouragement of my work. I owe an especially tremendous
debt of gratitude to Gordon Graham, who helped me secure a University
Scholarship to pursue my MLitt degree at St. Andrews University, and
without whose support and encouragement I might not have continued to
pursue my philosophical studies.
Although the views in this volume stem from my postgraduate research,
it is only since I joined the Department of Philosophy and Religious Stud-
ies at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) that I have been afforded the
opportunity to develop them into the form that they now take. As such,
I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my colleagues at TCNJ— Joanne
Cantor, Holly Haynes, Rick Kamber, Pierre LeMorven, Consuelo Preti,
Melinda Roberts, John Sisko, and Morton Winston—for providing an aca-
demic environment that is both wonderfully collegial and highly conducive
to scholarship. I also thank TCNJ for awarding me a three-year Support
of Scholarly Activities Award that enabled me to complete this volume,
and the staff of TCNJ Library for their sterling works in securing me the
materials that I needed.
I am also very grateful for the support that I have received in writing
this volume from both the Institute for Humane Studies and the Social