Back
Towards a broader understanding of agency in biomedical ethics.
Journal article

Towards a broader understanding of agency in biomedical ethics.

  • López Barreda R Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 30, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland. rodrigo.lopezbarreda@ethik.uzh.ch.
  • Trachsel M Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 30, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Biller-Andorno N Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 30, 8006, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • 2016-05-05
Published in:
  • Medicine, health care, and philosophy. - 2016
Agency
Bioethics
Illness
Self-determination
Bioethics
Humans
Mental Competency
Mental Disorders
Personal Autonomy
Psychological Theory
Social Values
Terminology as Topic
English With advances in medical science, the concept of agency has received increasing attention in biomedical ethics. However, most of the ethical discussion around definitions of agency has focused either on patients suffering from mental disorders or on patients receiving cutting-edge medical treatments in developed countries. Very little of the discussion around concepts of agency has focused on the situation of patients suffering from common diseases that affect populations worldwide. Therefore, the most widely-used definitions of agency may be not appropriate to analyse common diseases among large populations. The branch of social sciences known as development studies draw on their own definitions of the term agency that may provide a more applicable and accurate way of referring to common and general cases than the definitions currently used in bioethics. Moreover, the psychological Self-Determination Theory may improve the usefulness of these definitions in common situations. This article explains the characteristics and the shortcomings of current bioethical definitions of agency when they are applied to common medical conditions worldwide. A new, value-based concept of agency, informed by development studies, is proposed as more accurate and useful for biomedical ethics.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/263470
Statistics
Document views: 22 File downloads: