Tris Engelhardt and the queen of hearts
sentence first, verdict afterwards
pp. 175-188
in: Reading Engelhardt, Berlin, Springer, 1997Abstract
The bioethics of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr. presents a challenge. On the one hand, his grasp of this moment in the history of philosophy, the post-modern period, and its impact on the intersection of morality, medical practice, and public policy is incredibly precise. On the other hand, his direction for the remedy—a philosophical position anchored in the choices of mutually consenting, rationally developed adults—and, as a consequence, some of his particular conclusions are seriously flawed. In both his direction for the remedy and in the particular conclusions his work resembles the rule of the irascible Queen of Hearts in the Wonderland Kingdom encountered by Alice in her journey through the looking glass. In his general position, Engelhardt constructs a community in which only fully developed, self-conscious human beings count as persons, while in her domain the Queen permits only red roses. Engelhardt allows the conferral of personhood on lesser humans by fully developed, self-conscious human beings and the Queen allows the non-red roses to be painted red. In his conclusions, Engelhardt, like the Queen, wants to deliver the sentence-death-before he allows for the sufficient examination of the evidence and the determination of the verdict.
