Assuming that this is an accurate story–and determining that would be part of the job–what should bioethics’ response be? I’m not sure there’s anything distinctively feminist at issue here, except insofar as we are specially committed to prioritizing care and concern about others in our responses to states of affairs, and acting to advance those values. (Although even a hard-line proponent of mere justice would surely be upset at what appears to be going on. . . .)
But the question on my mind is this: Johns Hopkins is a top bioethics school with a large number of bioethicists of various kinds. Although I wouldn’t expect any of them–or the program as a whole–to be aware of this situation, once it has become public, what is it reasonable to expect of the bioethicists or the program as a whole? And if the answer is that they have no special responsibility to take this on, can the field really justify its existence? Granted, it would take some courage even for tenured bioethicists to take on such institutional corruption, but my question remains: do we stick to our own small areas, on the model of scholars in many other fields? Or do we also have a duty to take time out to address such flaming monstrosities?
There’s a market for biased professional opinions of all
kinds. I would imagine that if coal companies began feeling
threatened by bioethicists taking a public stance on the likes of
Wheeler they would simply hire their own bioethicists to take the
opposite view. Even Richard Doll, the legendary epidemiologist who
did more than anyone to link smoking with lung cancer, was happy to
sell his opinion on asbestos, dioxin, etc to the highest corporate
bidder. I guess whether you speak out about this sort of thing
depends on your own conscience, not whether you are a bioethicist
or radiologist or coal miner or whatever.