1. How Bioethical Standpoints Influence Biomedical Decisions Robert Arp, Ph.D. Ontology Research Group (ORG) www.org.buffalo.edu National Center for Biomedical Ontology (NCBO) www.bioontology.org This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Biomedical Research, Grant 1 U 54 HG004028. Information on the National Centers for Biomedical Computing can be found at: http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/bioinformatics.

2. See: Biomedical Ethics Ontology http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/dokuwiki/hsl wiki/doku.php?id=bioethics_ontology Contributors: Peter Winkelstein David Koepsell Andrea Ott Robert Arp (There will be a lot of categorization of Biomedical Ethics- related entities and principles in this talk, derived from thinking about a Biomedical Ethics Ontology) http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/dokuwiki/hsl wiki/doku.php?id=bioethics_ontology

4. DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS In this talk, I will primarily be doing:

5. DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS ABOUT

7. BIOETHICAL STANDPOINT BIOMEDICAL DECISION

8. METAETHICS NORMATIVE ETHICS APPLIED ETHICS GROUNDED IN

12. METAETHICS NORMATIVE ETHICS APPLIED ETHICS GROUNDED IN

13. Metaphysical Status of Moral Norms/Entities: What one believes exists “out there” in reality—god, nature, minds, matter and motion, nothing—that is the source of morality. Various Moral Theories: Religious Ethics, Natural Law Ethics, Egoism, Relativism, Utilitarianism, Kantian- Based Deontology, Virtue Ethics Applied Ethics: Business Ethics, Legal Ethics, Cyberethics, Bioethics, Medical Ethics… Biomedical Ethics GROUNDED IN

14. God exists… Nature is supreme… Humans with reason are central in the universe… The biosphere is sacred… There is nothing outside of this bleak existence… Priest says so… It’s unnatural… It’s cowardly… It’s not in our best interest… It’s unjust… Why? I decided not to do X… I made the practical decision to do Y… Why? BECAUSE

15. Our metaphysical/ontological outlook (s) Some set of principles (implicit or explicit) What we do GROUNDED IN More Simply

16. Another Way to Visualize This (Top-Down)… GROUNDED IN

17. What’s your evidence for this, Rob? - Psychological, Anthropological, Sociological, Religious, and Ethics journals and books - Testimonies resulting from more than 15 years of teaching adults and young adults general ethics, business ethics, biomedical ethics, world religions, and Catholic morality courses - 9 years of ministry in the Catholic seminary (high school, college, and grad school) at hospitals, nursing homes, half-way houses, homes for the mentally disabled, and other ministerial experiences - Years of in-depth conversations with people “getting to the bottom” as to why they act or do not act

18. SCHOLARLY WORKSSee, for example: - J. Fieser (Ed.), Metaethics, Normative Ethics, and Applied Ethics (Wadsworth, 1999). - A. Miller, An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics (Cambridge, 2003). - C. Korsgaard, The Sources of Normativity (Cambridge, 1996). - M. Smith, The Moral Problem (Blackwell, 1994). - R. Shafer-Landau (Ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics: Volume I (Oxford, 2006). - T. Horgan & M. Timmons (Eds.), Metaethics after Moore (Oxford, 2006). - J. Jacobs, Dimensions of Moral Theory: An Introduction to Metaethics and Moral Psychology (Blackwell, 2002). - The Journal of Ethics- Ethics - Ethics and Behavior- Journal of Clinical Ethics - Bioethics- Journal of Religious Ethics - Sociology- Journal of Sociology - Cultural Studies- Journal of Cultural Studies

19. Our metaphysical/ontological outlook (s) Some set of principles (implicit or explicit) What we do GROUNDED IN More Simply

20. Our metaphysical/ontological outlook (s) God exists… Nature is supreme… Humans with reason are central in the universe… The biosphere is sacred… There is nothing outside of this bleak existence… Metaphysical Status of Moral Norms/Entities: What one believes exists “out there” in reality—god, nature, minds, matter and motion, nothing—that is the source of morality.