Exploitation and bioethics. Individual ethics and legal regulation

Authors

  • Eduardo Rivera López

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/rbd2017.40.19158

Keywords:

exploitation, bioethics, commercial surrogacy, organ sales, biomedical research

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss exploitative transactions in bioethics. The most problematic case is what Allan Wertheimer calls "mutually advantageous exploitation": the weak party’s (W’s) consent for the transaction is an effective and rational consent. Moreover, W does not suffer any harm by the transaction; on the contrary, the transaction benefits W. My aim in this paper is twofold. From the perspective of individual ethics, I offer a model to conceive the nature of the wrongfulness of strong party’s action. From the perspective of legal ethics, I suggest some reasons to believe that the prohibition of beneficial, exploitative, contracts is problematic and can only be justified in very exceptional cases.

Author Biography

Eduardo Rivera López

Profesor e investigador de la Escuela de Derecho de la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Investigador independiente del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.

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Published

2017-05-31

How to Cite

Rivera López, E. (2017). Exploitation and bioethics. Individual ethics and legal regulation. Revista De Bioética Y Derecho, (40), 7–22. https://doi.org/10.1344/rbd2017.40.19158

Issue

2017: Núm. 40 - jul - Dossier XIII IAB World Congress

Section

Dossier Monograph XIII IAB World Congress

License

Licencia de Creative CommonsThe author retains the copyright and grants Revista de Bioética y Derecho the right of first publication of the article. All articles published in Revista de Bioética y Derecho are under Creative Commons licensing Recognition – Non Commercial – NoDerivedArtwork (by-nc-nd 4.0), which allows sharing the content with third parties, provided that they acknowledge its authorship, initial publication in this journal and the terms of the license. No commercial use of the original work or generation of derivative works is permitted.