Bioethics in Australia: On Politics, Power and the Rise of the Christian Right

Abstract

This chapter talks about Australian bioethics and highlights the argument that bioethics have never been above the political struggle for power and influence in the public marketplace of ideas. It describes the Australasian Bioethics Association, as it purposely moves bioethics discourse beyond philosophical or theological inquiry. The chapter concludes with an analysis of bioethics, as it functions as a political field through which the Christian right competes against secular science, bioethics, and liberal ideology in order to amplify religious doctrines, traditional family values and ethics, and social order in Australian society and politics. Keywords: Australian bioethics, political struggle, Australasian Bioethics Association, bioethics discourse, theological inquiry, Christian right, secular science, liberal ideology