Copyright

Henk ten Have

Published On

2026-09-14

Language

  • English

Print Length

52 pages

THEMA

  • QDTQ
  • MBDC
  • JHB
  • PDR

BISAC

  • PHI005000
  • MED050000
  • POL029000
  • SCI075000
  • PHI000000

Keywords

  • Bioethics
  • Global crises
  • Resilience
  • Global ethics

5. The Supposed Impotence of Ethics

Chapter of: Bioethics in Apocalyptic Times

Apocalyptic views call for different responses: rejection, resignation, and resistance. Chapter five argues that these responses usually do not acknowledge that apocalyptic views imply a moral assessment of the current state of the world as well as a longing to renew and transform the world through articulating different values than the dominating ones. This desire is also the purpose of ethics: contributing to the amelioration of the human condition. However, ethical discourse is often not translated into practice. The chapter distinguishes several types of barriers to the implementation of moral views and ideals: external, internalized, and internal ones. The last ones refer to impediments within the ethical discourse itself which can be too abstract, rational, individualistic, and biased to be effectively employed in a global setting. Remediating these internal barriers can make bioethics more resilient and a source of hope so that it can help to transform apocalyptic views and sentiments into a renewed commitment to a better future.

Contributors

Henk ten Have

(author)
Emeritus Professor at Duquesne University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3224-7943

Henk ten Have has been Director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, USA (2010–2019). He studied medicine and philosophy in the Netherlands and worked as professor in the Faculty of Medicine of the Universities of Maastricht and Nijmegen. From 2003 until 2010 he has joined UNESCO in Paris as Director of the Division of Ethics of Science and Technology. Since 2019 he is Emeritus Professor, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, USA, and since 2021 Research Professor at the Faculty of Bioethics in the Universidad Anahuac Mexico. He is editor of the International Journal of Ethics Education, and Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. He currently is President of the International Association for Education in Ethics.His recent book publications are Global Bioethics: An Introduction (2016), Vulnerability: Challenging Bioethics (2016), Global Education in Bioethics (2018), Wounded Planet: How Declining Biodiversity Endangers Health and How Bioethics Can Help (2019), Dictionary of Global Bioethics (with Maria do Céu Patrão Neves, 2021), Bioethics, Healthcare and the Soul (with Renzo Pegoraro, 2022), Bizarre Bioethics: Ghosts, Monsters and Pilgrims (2022), The Covid-19 Pandemic and Global Bioethics (2022). He has edited the Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics (2016) and Global Education in Bioethics (2018). His most recent book is Color, Healthcare and Bioethics (2025), published by OBP and available at https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0443