생명윤리에서 윤리적 허용가능성 담론과 법제화

Dealing with the ethical feature of bioethical discourse, this paper points out that the term of ‘ethically right’ has various meanings including ‘ethically permissible’ and that most of bioethical debates are about the ethical permissibility of an action in a question. There may be three types of ethically permissible actions. First, actions are ethically permissible in that they are not related to ethics and we cannot decide if they are ethically right or not. Second, actions are ethically permissible in that they cannot be decided to be ethically wrong and have reasons to ethically justify. Third, actions are socially considered to be ethically permissible because the opinion that they are ethically wrong has not yet been proved nor socially shared. Most of bioethical debates are about the third type of morally permissible actions. Discussing this type of morally permissible actions, it is emphasized that we need toleration when we are faced with reasonable disagreement in a pluralist society. Even when actions in a question are morally permissible, the additional considerations from legal, administrative and social perspectives are necessary in their legislation. For ethics and law have different ways of regulation and social functions. Ethics is an informal public system whereas law is a formal one. Even after our decision of legislation, democratic procedures to reach a consensus are necessary because bioethical issues are easy to be politicized. In addition, we have to consider what will be regulated by an act and what by an enforcement decree or rule from the perspective of legislative methodology. Our legislation also has to include a system to be able to reflect the rapid changes in the development of biomedical science and technology. Finally, field specialists as well as legal ones should actively participate in the process of legislation so that an act may be practicable and effective.