Standing on Principles: Collected Essays

by Tom L. Beauchamp

Tom L. Beauchamp of Georgetown is one of the founding fathers of contemporary bioethics, and is particularly influential as one of the co-authors (with James Childress) of PRINCIPLES OF BIOMEDICAL ETHICS, first published by OUP over 25 years ago and a true cornerstone of contemporary bioethics. This volume is both an introductory textbook as well as a definitive expression of what is known as the dominant "principlist" approach which views bioethical reasoning developing out of four key respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. This view has been highly influential over the last two decades and has set the agenda for the field.

This volume will collect Tom Beauchamp's 15 most important published articles in bioethics, most of which were published over the last 25 years, and most of which have a strong connection to the principlist approach. Most of the essays included here augment, develop, or defend various themes, positions and arguments in that earlier book, both adding depth as well as taking off in new directions. Among the topic discussed are the historical origins of modern research ethics, to moral principles and methodological concerns. Beauchamp will include a new introduction to explain the history of the essays and their relationship to the principlist theory.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Tom Lamar Beauchamp was an American philosopher specializing in the work of David Hume, moral philosophy, bioethics, and animal ethics. He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University, where he was Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.
Beauchamp authored or co-authored several books on ethics and on Hume, including Hume and the Problem of Causation (1981, with Alexander Rosenberg), Principles of Biomedical Ethics (1985, with James F. Childress), and The Human Use of Animals (1998, with F. Barbara Orlans et al). He was the co-editor with R. G. Frey of The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics (2011). He was also the co-editor of the complete works of Hume, The Critical Edition of the Works of David Hume (1999), published by Oxford University Press.