Moral Norms and Hermeneutics in Clinical Bioethics
Authors
Paolo Cattorini
State University of Insubria, Medical School, Varese, I.
National Committee for Bioethics, I.
Keywords:
Clinical bioethics, Futility , Persistent vegetative state, Moral norms, Hermeneutics
Abstract
Clinical bioethics applies moral norms to clinical situations, but this kind of application is not of an impersonal, deductive kind. In the stories of illness the suffering voices of the patients have to be heard and interpreted, to discover the real meaning of their resort to medicine. In a hermeneutical perspective, moral norms have a symbolic nature, because they command a good personal attitude toward the other persons and they prohibit an hostile intention of exploitation, domination, abuse.
