Is it time for a 'theoretical turn' in empirical bioethics?

Abstract: Several decades ago, bioethics underwent an ‘empirical turn’ in response to the ‘social science critique’ of philosophically-grounded bioethics. This critique asserted that bioethics had failed to adequately account for social context and lived experience, and had neglected to acknowledge the social location of contemporary Western bioethics. Since then, bioethics research and analysis have witnessed the proliferation of ‘empirical bioethics,’ or a steady increase in the use of empirical (and primarily qualitative) research methods, sometimes paired with theoretical perspectives from other disciplines. This paper argues that the burgeoning field of empirical bioethics would now benefit from a ‘theoretical turn,’ or greater engagement with philosophical theory, to meet the promise and potential of empirical bioethics. The paper proceeds in three sections. First, I outline two core features of the nature and purpose of bioethics as a practically oriented, normative inquiry—that bioethics has a ratio-normative and experiential component—and discuss their methodological implications. Second, I revisit the original motivation for the ‘empirical turn’ in bioethics and consider whether the present turn to the empirical has addressed the original critique of philosophically-grounded bioethics. Third, I argue that empirical bioethics would benefit from a ‘theoretical turn’ that encourages a more deliberate integration of the empirical with the theoretical in order to deliver on the distinct aims of bioethics. I also consider and respond to possible concerns with a theoretical turn, emphasizing that a theoretical turn does not—nor should—necessitate a return to a 'pre-empirical bioethics' that privileges theory.

Keywords: Methodology in bioethics, Empirical bioethics, Philosophical theory