![handle is hein.journals/medhcph21 and id is 1 raw text is: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (2018) 21:1-2
https://doi.org/1 0.1007/si 1019-017-9821-y
EDITORIAL
CrossMark
The trilemma of designing international bioethics curricula
Bert Gordijn' Henk ten Have2
Published online: 20 December 2017
© Springer Science+Business Media By., part of Springer Nature 2017
Cultural diversity is certainly one of the challenges one faces
when designing curricula for international bioethics stu-
dents. Piasecki et al. contend [...] it is very difficult if not
impossible to create an ethnically and culturally neutral mes-
sage, but what really matters is not the message itself, but the
forum: where critical ideas and reflections are discussed by
the students. The values [...] should be clearly declared, but
there should be space to contest them (Piasecki et al. 2018,
this issue). We certainly agree with both the importance of
transparency of the values inherent in a teaching program as
well as the idea of allowing critical discussion of said values.
However, as to 'the message itself', i.e. the content of bioeth-
ics curricula, however, we claim that it is imperative as well.
In fact, when designing a bioethics curriculum with the aim
to teach it in international settings, you face the following
trilemma. Either you develop a curriculum with the inten-
tion to promote some normative ethical theory or you do it
without that objective. If you do endorse a normative theory
within your curriculum, it will either be moral relativism or
some universal ethical theory. All three options involve their
own specific problems.
Curricula not promoting any specific
normative theory
If you develop a curriculum that is not based on any specific
normative theory, your teaching program might of course
involve metaethics: you could focus on the Frege-Geach
problem, go into the specifics of deontic logic, touch on the
question of whether ethical claims are eligible for assess-
ments in terms of truth, and the like. You might likewise
engage in descriptive ethics and, for instance, present an
W Bert Gordijn
bert.gordijn@dcu.ie
Institute of Ethics, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
2 Center for Healthcare Ethics, Duquesne University,
Pittsburgh, USA
overview of distinctive moral attitudes in different cultures
or historic epochs. Additionally, you could discuss a selec-
tion of normative ethical theories, analyze them, point out
problematic premises, identify internal contradictions, and
so on. However, in doing all of the above, you will refrain
from any engagement with ethical theories or normative atti-
tudes on a normative level. After all, you are not teaching
from any specific normative theoretical background. Accord-
ingly, your curriculum will fail to contribute to the develop-
ment and dissemination of a uniform normative framework
for the assessment of international and transcultural institu-
tions, practices and actions.
Curricula promoting moral relativism
If your teaching programme is based on and meant to pro-
mote moral relativism, it will endorse the idea that ethi-
cal issues within a particular local culture should be dealt
with by using the normative standards engendered within
and endorsed by that specific culture. This view will there-
fore confirm the moral status quo in local cultures and thus
block any criticism from outside based on normative stand-
ards that are not part and parcel of the homegrown culture
at hand. The normative ethical theory that such a teaching
programme promotes, i.e. moral relativism, will not be able
to deal effectively with international issues that transgress
boundaries of local cultures, such as human trafficking, cli-
mate change, pandemics, brain drain of healthcare work-
ers, organ trade, and the like. After all, it remains unclear
what ethical standards to use when assessing phenomena
that transgress the boundaries of local cultures, i.e. the
most urgent issues of global bioethics today. Besides, moral
relativism seems to promote a universal norm of tolerance
and respect for the other cultures, which leads to contradic-
tions when a specific culture explicitly repudiates this norm.
Should in such a case the denial be respected or tolerated?
In addition, the concept of culture is inherently imprecise,
which leads to confusion when it comes to identifying
9 Springer](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/medhcph21&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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