기독교 생명윤리학 방법론

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to find a methodology of Christian bioethics. It is very important to give concrete solutions to emergent problems of contemporary bioethics. However, it is also necessary to have a proper method of bioethics, for the method itself has its own worldview.This article explains the deductive and the inductive method, their weakpoints. The dedeuctive method is a good tool for us to suggest general moral principles. It cannot, however, resolve the conflict between moral principles and moral sense which lies in the concrete moral judgements or the one between various moral principles. The inductive method is very helpful to the medical personnels who should find an answer of the concrete problems in medical practices. But it has to require a moral principle to decide which case should be a paradigm case. I introduce the method of reflective equilibrium which John Rawls uses to avoid the difficulties of both methods.From the perspective of the background theory in the method of reflective equilibrium I suggest that Christian worldview plays a crucial role in bioethical debates. I think that the Holy Scripture can have a important role in bioethics. Furthermore, I suggest that it is very difficult to translate Biblical languages into general moral languages and that this translation should be made in order that Christian ethics be able to has influences on public policy-making. The method of reflective method shows that Christian worldview is no obstacle, but very helpful to public policy-making concerning bioethical issues. Christian ethics has wider dimensions than the contemporary bioethics, for it deals not only with life as organism but also with life in existential sense. Finally, I suggest that Christian bioethics should have not only theoretical consistency and accuracy but also persuasive power in practice.