Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
9
A Fuzzy-Logic Approach to Bioethics
Txetxu Ausín
“To be or not to be: that is the question. Rather, that is one question,
since to be more or to be less is also a significant question.”
Vásconez y Peña, “What is a Gradual Ontology?”, 1996.
9.1
Bioethics
In a broad sense, Bioethics is the study of ethical controversies brought about by
the advances in biology and medicine. It could be understood as a kind of “third
culture”, attending to the classical C.P. Snow's distinction of two cultures, between
the humanities and the hard sciences. In that way, Bioethics represents a “bridge”
between these two cultures, a sort of “survival science” in terms of V. R. Potter.
Anyway, Bioethics is an interdisciplinary activity, similarly to other applied
ethics, since it deals with questions arising from the interactions among life sci-
ences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy.
Bioethics involves polemic issues such as euthanasia, abortion, embryonic re-
search, human enhancement, the role of personhood and rational thinking in confer-
ring rights and duties, or animal experimentation.
We find in the bioethical debate questions about facts (states of affairs), about
definitions (categories), about reasons (arguments), and about norms (values). And
it is usual to cope with them from a dichotomyzed point of view, from an “all-or-
nothing” approach.
In this article we are going to argue that a fuzzy-logic approach to Bioethics is
particularly fruitful in order to analyze the facts, definitions, and norms in Bioethics.
9.2
The Issue of Facts and Definitions in Bioethics
In order to defend a fuzzy-logic approach to Bioethics, I'll stand a strong ontological
assumption but very reasonable from a commonsense viewpoint; that is, the gradu-
alism of reality: Any fact, any property, any definition or category, or any state of
