How Can We Help? From “Sociology in” to “Sociology of” Bioethics

Abstract

Sociology and bioethics have an uneasy relationship. Bioethicists find sociology helpful for describing and analyzing ethical issues, but they are less enthusiastic when bioethics becomes the subject of sociological scrutiny. After review of different sociological approaches to bioethical topics - descriptive, evaluative, and analytical - I explain how bioethics will benefit by using the tools of sociology to answer its questions ("sociology in bioethics") and by allowing sociology to use bioethics to answer sociological questions.