Bioethics - Autonomy
Autonomy - answer From the Greek autos (self) Nomos (rule of self-determination, self-
rule and self-governing). Autonomy can be defined as "self-rule with no control, undue
influence or interference from other". It is about respecting other people's wishes and
supporting them in their decisions.
Autonomy Key Tenants - answer Moral Individualism, Moral Constructivism and The
Doctrine of Moral Volunteerism
Moral Individualism - answer The belief that the moral individual is the center of the
universe. Morality issues from the individual. There is no higher source. What is
valuable is the individual. What ultimately matters is the individual.
Moral Constructivism - answer The notion that the basic features of society are
ultimately products of human choice and artifice, and as such the social world is a
human world, a world fashioned not by God or nature but by the amazingly plastic,
adaptive human will.
The Doctrine of Moral Volunteerism (consent) - answer The moral life of the individual
has to do with certain relationships that they have freely chosen to be a part of. You're
born into this world but you're not born into moral commitments.
Objective Autonomy - answerReason. Autonomy has to do with being free - the ability to
cause an event to happen in the physical world where you were the initiating cause of
that action. Autonomy is objective because reason and the moral law it discerns are
objective.
Subjective Autonomy - answerLiberty. Liberty is an absence of external constraint - the
right to do what individual's judge is best for themselves. Each person is the most
reasonable custodian and definer of his or her own interests and objectives (subjective).
This approach stresses liberty over reason.
Negative Liberty - answerThe absence of control by others: Has to do with establishing
a zone of privacy and non-interference around each person, a zone within which the
person can exercise his own faculties and pursue his own life in his own way.
Positive Liberty - answerSelf-control: very close to self-mastery and detached
judgement. I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of
whatever kind.
Autonomy - answer From the Greek autos (self) Nomos (rule of self-determination, self-
rule and self-governing). Autonomy can be defined as "self-rule with no control, undue
influence or interference from other". It is about respecting other people's wishes and
supporting them in their decisions.
Autonomy Key Tenants - answer Moral Individualism, Moral Constructivism and The
Doctrine of Moral Volunteerism
Moral Individualism - answer The belief that the moral individual is the center of the
universe. Morality issues from the individual. There is no higher source. What is
valuable is the individual. What ultimately matters is the individual.
Moral Constructivism - answer The notion that the basic features of society are
ultimately products of human choice and artifice, and as such the social world is a
human world, a world fashioned not by God or nature but by the amazingly plastic,
adaptive human will.
The Doctrine of Moral Volunteerism (consent) - answer The moral life of the individual
has to do with certain relationships that they have freely chosen to be a part of. You're
born into this world but you're not born into moral commitments.
Objective Autonomy - answerReason. Autonomy has to do with being free - the ability to
cause an event to happen in the physical world where you were the initiating cause of
that action. Autonomy is objective because reason and the moral law it discerns are
objective.
Subjective Autonomy - answerLiberty. Liberty is an absence of external constraint - the
right to do what individual's judge is best for themselves. Each person is the most
reasonable custodian and definer of his or her own interests and objectives (subjective).
This approach stresses liberty over reason.
Negative Liberty - answerThe absence of control by others: Has to do with establishing
a zone of privacy and non-interference around each person, a zone within which the
person can exercise his own faculties and pursue his own life in his own way.
Positive Liberty - answerSelf-control: very close to self-mastery and detached
judgement. I wish my life and decisions to depend on myself, not on external forces of
whatever kind.
