Barry Hoffmaster offers us a meditation on Impact Ethics.

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Impact Ethics is a way of doing bioethics.

It is not a definition of bioethics.
It is not a theory of bioethics.
It is not a scholarly analysis of bioethics.

It is a bioethics that is faithful to its origins, not its patrons.
It is a bioethics that is embedded, not abstracted.

It is a bioethics that is critical, not accepting.
It is a bioethics that is creative, not conventional.
It is a bioethics that is risky, not secure.

It is a bioethics of commitment, not resignation.
It is a bioethics of engagement, not passivity.
It is a bioethics of devotion, not recognition.
It is a bioethics of the marginalized, not the established.

It is the bioethics of a calling, not a career.
It is the bioethics of the advocate, not the consultant.
It is the bioethics of the activist, not the apologist.
It is the bioethics of the whistleblower, not the muckraker.

It is a bioethics for the humble, not the aggrandizing.
It is a bioethics for the vulnerable, not the powerful.

Impact Ethics disappoints more than it rewards.

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Barry Hoffmaster, Professor of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario