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Epistocracy for Online Deliberative Bioethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2015

GIUSEPPE SCHIAVONE ,
MATTEO MAMELI  and
GIOVANNI BONIOLO
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Abstract:

The suggestion that deliberative democratic approaches would suit the management of bioethical policymaking in democratic pluralistic societies has triggered what has been called the “deliberative turn” in health policy and bioethics. Most of the empirical work in this area has focused on the allocation of healthcare resources and priority setting at the local or national level. The variety of the more or less articulated theoretical efforts behind such initiatives is remarkable and has been accompanied, to date, by an overall lack of method specificity. We propose a set of methodological requirements for online deliberative procedures for bioethics. We provide a theoretical motivation for these requirements. In particular, we discuss and adapt an “epistocratic” proposal and argue that, regardless of its merits as a general political theory, a more refined version of its normative claims can generate a useful framework for the design of bioethical forums that combine maximal inclusiveness with informed and reasonable deliberation.

Keywords

bioethicsdeliberative democracyparticipationepistocracy
Type
Special Section: Bioethics and Information Technology
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 272 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

Notes

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