Rethinking with Onora O’Neill the Kantian Concept of Autonomy in Biolaw

Rethinking with Onora O’Neill the Kantian Concept of Autonomy in Biolaw
Book Chapter
María Jesús Vázquez Lobeiras
The Discourse of Biorights, 1 October 2024; Chapter 6 [Springer]
Abstract
The concept of autonomy plays a significant role in Bioethics as well as in Biolaw, the Kantian conception of autonomy being an unavoidable element in the debate. Some of the most relevant contributions in this discussion stem from Onora O’Neill’s work. Prof. O’Neill promotes an anti-individualist interpretation of autonomy and, in order to increase its ethical efficiency, suggests reconsidering the meaning of autonomy as closely linked to trust. This chapter tries to show how intertwined information, autonomy and trust are at a time when medical technologies and care need to be interpreted and disclosed in order to be properly understood.
Introduction
…Informed consent and the ethical and legal principle of autonomy are closely linked, since the former is usually considered a genuine expression of the latter…Considering informed consent to be one of the main expressions of autonomy, although not the only one, in what follows we will analyse it from the perspective of Onora O’Neill. Kant’s texts will be consulted once again in order to clarify what the eminent thinker of Königsberg understands by autonomy and to what extent his concept of application can be applied in the field of biolaw.