Copyright

Henk ten Have

Published On

2026-09-14

Language

  • English

Print Length

54 pages

THEMA

  • QDTQ
  • MBDC
  • JHB
  • PDR

BISAC

  • PHI005000
  • MED050000
  • POL029000
  • SCI075000
  • PHI000000

Keywords

  • Bioethics
  • Global crises
  • Resilience
  • Global ethics

8. Bioethics in Practice

Chapter of: Bioethics in Apocalyptic Times

In the final chapter it is elaborated how bioethics can overcome the abstractness, rationality, individualism and Western biases that usually dominate ethical discourse, and often result in a gap between theory and practica and suggest impotence in the face of global threats and apocalyptic scenarios. A resilient and imaginative bioethics will be down-to-earth and focused on localized capacities to address global challenges. As a global approach it will no longer assume that these challenges can be primarily solved at the level of global governance but it will engage local and communal activities. It will operate at three levels. First, it will be inspired and motivated by moral exemplars, i.e. admirable concrete human beings dealing with vital problems. Second, it will stimulate action from the lifeworld in which individuals collaborate for a common cause, and participate in citizen’s initiatives, municipal actions, and social movements. Multilayered governance is the third level of operation for global bioethics, encouraging governance from below, and reclaiming human rights. History has known many dark times, and the present world is certainly not the world we wish or aspire. But as humans we have the capacity to make new beginnings, to take initiatives, and to set things in motion that differ from what exists. Every human beings is an instance of hope that a better world is possible.

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