A contribution of the Bioethics of Intervention to rethinking the concept of “principle”

Abstract

The word “principle” has acquired an increasing semantic range over the centuries and continues to be used today in the search for the solution of moral conflicts. The present study begins by analyzing the different concepts of principle in Philosophy and Law. In addition to these fields, the research sought to study the interpretation of bioethics about the idea of principle, especially in the case of principlism. It was observed that the basic notion of principle has been used in the three fields analyzed - philosophy, law and bioethics - in a vertical way. Having presented the different concepts of principle (relative and absolute), these are discussed in a critical comparative way, and compared with the presumably universal notion of common morality. Finally, the text discusses the possibility of constructing a horizontal approach to these principles, using as reference the respect for moral pluralism, in the theoretical-applied line proposed by the Bioethics of Intervention.