An external review of the Council’s ethics
The Council regularly reflects on its method of working, and at its annual Forward Look Meeting in 2004, held a seminar on ‘The way we reason: deliberation, consultation and policy in bioethics’. Discussion included consideration of the role of the Council in policy making and its approach to bioethical debate. In particular, delegates considered the question of whether there was sufficient transparency about the Council’s constitutive bioethical position, and whether ethical frameworks and principles were used consistently in its publications.
The Council continued the discussion in subsequent years, and in 2006 invited John Harris, Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester, to carry out an external review of the way ethical frameworks, principles, norms and guiding concepts feature in its publications. Professor Harris completed this review with his colleague Dr Sarah Chan, and the final report which was considered by the Council in Spring 2007.
The Council found the review helpful in highlighting which frameworks or principles featured most prominently in particular reports and noted the authors’ comment that increasingly the ethical frameworks used in its publications had become more explicit and transparent. In particular the Council agrees with the authors’ comment that “best practice in ethical decision making involves making decisions on the basis of the best available evidence, in the light of consistently applied and relevant moral principles which are either generally agreed and accepted or which can be established to be relevant by moral argument.”
In light of the review the Council has also produced a statement on its general approach to the use of ethical frameworks and principles.
Last Updated Fri, 5 September 2008