Thérèse Murphy: The Bioethical Triangle

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Thérèse Murphy: The Bioethical Triangle i. The concept The Bioethical Triangle in Murphy’s presentation refers to the three ethics of: Human Rights, Dignitarian ethics, and Utilitarian ethics. Human rights aspect stresses that the end goal and the focus of this concept is to serve Human Rights, the dignitarian relates to human dignity which must be protected through the biotechnological development, and also the technology is here to aim for empowering human dignity. Utilitarian ethics refer to human welfare, they aim to maximize the utility and minimize the harm. This concept links the mentioned three points within the medical, biology and biotechnology fields in relation to Human Rights. ii. Key problematic issues Murphy clarifies her …show more content…

This can be due to several reasons, starting governance, when countries claim exceptionalism argument, the most famous title for this argument is security. Exceptionalism argues that it is acceptable to deny certain rights when “necessary”. This may provide governments with a greenlight to challenge biotechnologies fearing that dissemination of such knowledge may threaten them by accessibility for information on biological weapons for instance. Another shortcoming in linking the regulations and laws with bioethics, is the fact that the international norms adopted in relation to biotechnology lack a discourse of Human Rights, moreover, the concept of dignity is seldom referred to in …show more content…

However, mass media is one of the major critical field which needs to adhere to ethical standards to respect Human Rights. Revealing the truth for the sake of advocacy about some human rights violations, and to urge action from other actors, is genuinely a noble goal. However, limits need to be the dignity of human beings. Furthermore, the utilitarianism ethics stress that this should be profiting human rights, thus, when media platforms disregard human dignity, exposing too much is sometimes needless. The victimhood generalization which is broadcasted has no utility goal and does not serve Human Rights. The ethical triangle can be applied to provide critical analysis of examples of such acts. One of the controversial instants that can be sampled is the coverage of people’s suffering in humanitarian crisis. In times of war, many media personnel repeat the question “how do you feel”, when an explicit footage of the incident can tell the audience what the people who had their house bombed or lost a family member feel. Hassling people who are grieving when it can be avoided is a violation of the ethics aimed at respecting human

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