Copyright

Henk ten Have

Published On

2026-09-14

Language

  • English

Print Length

30 pages

THEMA

  • QDTQ
  • MBDC
  • JHB
  • PDR

BISAC

  • PHI005000
  • MED050000
  • POL029000
  • SCI075000
  • PHI000000

Keywords

  • Bioethics
  • Global crises
  • Resilience
  • Global ethics

6. Resilient Bioethics and the Power of Hope

Chapter of: Bioethics in Apocalyptic Times

In the sixth chapter the notions of resilience and hope are elaborated in connection to bioethics. They may assist bioethics in reshaping itself in the face of present-day apocalyptic scenarios. Ethical frameworks in healthcare have always been resilient in the sense of adapting and transforming themselves within a changing scientific, social, and cultural environment. In their orientation towards the future they have emphasized the need for resilience and the power of hope. In a context of vulnerability and despair hope like resilience is a transformative force, orientated on values. It is an important feature of individual human beings but also a communal enterprise, shaped by social, cultural, and religious narratives and experiences. In its orientation towards the future, hope is regarded as a passion for what is possible. It makes us look beyond the present condition to see a potential future with new goals, meanings, and values. To hope means imagining what is not yet there but may be possible. The role of the imagination in bioethics will be developed in the following chapter.

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