{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T08:56:40Z","timestamp":1789721800206,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":22,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"5","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Med Ethics"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2003,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper a plea is made for an unprincipled approach to biomedical ethics, unprincipled of course just in the sense that the four principles are neither the start nor the end of the process of ethical reflection. While the four principles constitute a useful \u201cchecklist\u201d approach to bioethics for those new to the field, and possibly for ethics committees without substantial ethical expertise approaching new problems, it is an approach which if followed by the bioethics community as a whole would, the author believes, lead to sterility and uniformity of approach of a quite mindbogglingly boring kind. Moreover, much of bioethics is not concerned with identifying the principles or values appropriate to a particular issue, but rather involves analysing the arguments that are so often already in play and which present themselves as offering solutions in one direction or another. Here, as I try to show in discussion of these four scenarios, the principles allow massive scope in interpretation and are, frankly, not wonderful as a means of detecting errors and inconsistencies in argument.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/jme.29.5.303","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2003,9,30]],"date-time":"2003-09-30T20:43:52Z","timestamp":1064954632000},"page":"303-306","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":67,"title":["In praise of unprincipled ethics"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"29","author":[{"given":"J","family":"Harris","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2003,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/jme.29.5.267"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.2","unstructured":"Erin CA, Harris J. A monopsonistic market\u2014or how to buy and sell human organs, tissues and cells ethically. In: Robinson I, ed. The social consequences of life and death under high technology medicine. Manchester: Manchester University Press in association with the Fulbright Commission, London, 1994:134\u201357."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.3","unstructured":"Cooper dKC, Lanza RP. Xeno. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000: 7\u201317."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2219222"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.5","unstructured":"Harris J. The value of life. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985:ch 6."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/jme.29.3.130"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1748-121X.2002.tb00667.x"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.8","unstructured":"Harris J. Wonderwoman and Superman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992:ch 5."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.9","unstructured":"Dworkin R. Life\u2019s dominion. London: Harper Collins, 1993:ch 7."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.10","unstructured":"Parfit D. Reasons and persons. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984:394."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.11","unstructured":"Harris J. Ethical issues in geriatric medicine. In: Tallis RC, Brocklehurst JC, Fillett H, eds. Textbook of geriatric medicine and gerontoloy [5th ed]. London: Churchill Livingstone, 1998."},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.324.7353.1541"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(97)08211-1"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.325.7356.114"},{"key":"2024052910465381000_29.5.303.15","unstructured":"Allen RDM, Lynch SV, Strong RW. The living organ donor. In: Chapman JR, Wight C, eds. Organs and tissue donation for transplantation. 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