Health Ethics

In the seventh edition of Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Tom Beauchamp and James Childress present five distinct theories that contemplate who and what deserves moral status. Beauchamp and Childress begin by arguing that it is not clearly understood which individuals or groups are protected by moral norms. Moral norms or the common morality as defined in the book are ‘norms about right and wrong human conduct that are so widely shared that they form a stable social compact.’ To clearly understand these theories, we must take into account different groups that cause confusion amongst the theories. Should human eggs, embryos, fetuses, newborn infants, nonhuman animals used in medical research, or the mentally disabled who are unable to distinguish right from wrong deserve moral protection or have moral rights? Beauchamp and Childress address these questions in their debate regarding each of the five theories.

In order to understand how complicated the concept of moral status can be, it is important to briefly summarize each theory. The first theory presented is a theory based on human properties. This stance presents that properties associated with Homo sapiens alone constitute moral status. This is considered the traditional account of moral status and basically indicates that all humans have full moral status based on their DNA. Theory one includes all types of humans, regardless of age or mental state as long as they have human properties. The second theory is a theory based on cognitive properties. Beauchamp and Childress define cognition as ‘processes of awareness such as perception, memory, understanding and thinking.’ The principle of this theory states that a person has moral status if they are able to take these cognitive properties and apply them to their lives. This raises many concerns regarding the position of young infants, the elderly, or persons with mental disability. These groups of people may not have the cognitive properties as stated above,...