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Formal and Substantive Rationality
December 9th, 2008 by
John Evans in his book "Playing God?" gives us a good history of the hollowing out of bioethics from the early debates in the 1950s and 1960s led by theologians to the gradual triumph of government commissions, formal rationality, depletion of substance, and the rise and triumph of experts.
Once the commission venue took over, with its main constituency being congressional staffers and IRBs, debate about substantive issues gradually was backgrounded.
The two topics that Evan's does not address adequately in this otherwise fine book are: what were the actual theological debates? And is it really true that the bioscientists are as instrumental and venal as he portrays them?

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