Joseph Fletcher: Morals and Medicine (1954) and Situation Ethics (1966)

Joseph Fletcher:

Morals and Medicine (1954)

Situation Ethics (1966)

Joseph Fletcher's two books illustrate an important trend in applied ethics--the public interest in practical ethics, the ethics of daily life, the work place, and public policy.  I see Fletcher as a populizer rather than a philosophical ethicist.  While I am not familiar with the more technical aspects of philosophy and ethics or with place that Fletcher holds in academic philosophy, I would like to reflect on the way his work influenced my interest in information ethics.  From my perspective, it would be valuable to explore the emergence of medical ethics after World War II as a patient-centered enterprise and the way medical ethics and bioethics have exploded as a field.  Fletcher's Morals and Medicine (1954) focuses on the patient's right to know. Note too that Fletcher wrote an early book on reproductive and genetics ethics.  I will comment more on these matters.  

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Applied Ethics (1945-1990)

Beginning Dates?

What do we know about the emergence of the various fields of applied ethics after World War II to the present?

• Medical Ethics
• Engineering Ethics
• Earth Ethics
• Environmental Ethics
• Bioethics
• Computer Ethics
• Information Technology Ethics
• Information Ethics
• Cyberethics
• Bioethics
• Reproductive Ethics
• Nursing Ethics
• Genetic Ethics
• Health Care Ethics
• ???