title: Casuistry in medical ethics: rehabilitated, or repeat offender?
abstract: For a number of reasons, casuistry has come into vogue in medical ethics. Despite the frequency with which it is avowed, the application of casuistry to issues in medical ethics has been given virtually no systematic defense in the ethics literature. That may be for good reason, since a close examination reveals that casuistry delivers much less than its advocates suppose, and that it shares some of the same weaknesses as the principle-based methods it would hope to supplant.
authors.affiliation: Center for Ethics and Humanities, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomlinson
mesh_terms: D026688:Bioethical Issues; D032764:Casuistry; D003657:Decision Making; D026689:Ethical Analysis; D028663:Ethical Theory; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005065:Euthanasia; D033101:Euthanasia, Active, Voluntary; D009014:Morals; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D016312:Treatment Refusal; D014481:United States