Abstract
The notion of trust is central to bioethical theories; however, until recently, the topic has received little explicit analysis in many of these theories. Over the last 15 years, a large body of recent philosophical and empirical social science and medical literature has examined the role, impact, and function of trust in bioethics. This entry briefly examines the history of the concept of trust in the bioethics, particularly the role that trust played in medicine in the pre-bioethics era, the role that the lack of trust has played in the emergence of bioethics as an area of inquiry, as well as how the literature on trust has evolved in philosophy and bioethics. The prevailing philosophical concept of trust is discussed and reviewed, specifically its nature as an interpersonal attitude that one agent may harbor toward another and the conditions that justify its placement, including the controversial question of motivation. Finally, several ethical dimensions of trust are discussed from a theoretical perspective, namely, the role of trust within virtue ethics and feminist bioethics and critical views on trust as it relates to the practice of informed consent and public policy.
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Baier, A. C. (1991). Trust and its vulnerabilities (Vol. 13). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
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Geransar, R. (2016). Trust. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_426
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09483-0_426
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