Thus the Institute of Medicine, Law and Bioethics was established in 1995 "to shed light in difficult and controversial places". John Harris, professor of ethics at the institute, was in at the ground floor of the ethics business 30 years ago, having stumbled into it "by accident" when he published a thesis that explored the dilemmas which could be thrown up by the still-theoretical idea of organ transplants. Doctors came knocking on his door, seeking advice on all sorts of ethical matters. Overnight Professor Harris was perceived as an expert in the otherwise empty field.None the less, Michael Wilks, the current chairman of the BMA's ethics committee, notes that there was much early caution. "The medical profession found it difficult to be removed from its god-like role," he says.
Now, by contrast, there is an active desire to seek the views of ethicists.And what is an ethicist? "An ethicist is somebody who says they know about ethics," is one succinct response from a leading figure in the field. Alternatively: "It's like with an expert - an expert is somebody who comes from out of town and wears glasses."There is, however, respect for the intellectual rigour of the best in the field. One of the better known figures brought in to advise on ethical matters was the distinguished Oxford philosopher Mary Warnock. The committee that she chaired produced landmark recommendations on surrogacy and IVF, trying to disentangle the overlapping contradictions between choice and regulation.Baroness Warnock is wary of what she regards as sloppy thinking in the ethics industry.
"Philosophy teaches you the difference between an argument and something that isn't - or is a bad one. It teaches you to query your instincts, and to ask yourself: `Why?' " Her greatest worry is that, with the explosion of expertise, "most ethics committees are relatively superficial - a kind of orthodoxy is likely to creep up".FOR THE church, religious input is crucial. It has its own committee on social responsibility - in effect, an ethics committee. Churchmen sit on almost every ethical committee in the country Worries about being sidelined have gradually eased. In the words of one churchman: "A few years ago, there was a real fear that legislation on these difficult issues was based on pragmatism and the market rather than ethics.
