Fact and value in bioethics: How to get rid of the dichotomy

Abstract

This article offers a perspective on recent developments in bioethics,a field in which the distinction between fact and value ispervasive. By surveying how the word value is used in principle-based, mainstream biomedical ethics, it is shown that someuses enforce an essentialist tendency to speak of values as freestandingentities.As an illustration and explanation of the increasingpervasiveness of this language, both in English-speaking and Spanish-speaking bioethics, we describe the role of value talk inrecent writings by Diego Gracia.We focus on how his proposal ofa methodology for bioethics uses the fact/value dichotomy, andanalyse his position in relation to the agenda for the debate on theconcepts of health and disease proposed by George Khushf. As aconclusion, we suggest an alternative way of thinking about valuesin order to overcome the dichotomy.