The Politics of Preventing Premature Death

Abstract

This paper argues that bioethics needs to focus more centrally on political and social practices that contribute to death, disease, or disability. A broader vision would help bioethicists show why attacking the root causes of premature death and physical suffering should have priority over contemplating the pros and cons of expensive, risky, high-tech solutions that often address problems after they have developed. Only this approach is consistent with bioethicists’ professed values, such as the wrongness of hastening patients’ deaths without their consent. This approach puts corporate and governmental decision-making at the center of moral inquiry, as they determine economic, environmental, and occupational conditions that are a major source of death, disease, and disability. However, there are significant cultural and institutional obstacles to this kind of bioethics.