One often hears stories of people in terrible and seemingly intractable situations who are preyed upon by individuals offering empty promises of help. Frequently these cases are condemned ...
MoreOne often hears stories of people in terrible and seemingly intractable situations who are preyed upon by individuals offering empty promises of help. Frequently these cases are condemned as “exploiting the hope” of another. These accusations are made in a range of contexts, including human smuggling, the beauty industry, and unproven medical interventions. This concept is meant to do heavy lifting in public discourse, identifying a specific form of unethical conduct. However, it is poorly understood what is meant to be wrong by the accusation of exploiting hope, the range of activities that can accurately be captured under this concept, and what should be done about it. Thus, it is an ethical concept that is ripe for extended analysis and discussion. This book offers a close study of the concept of exploiting hope. First, it examines this concept in the abstract, including a close look at how this term is used in the popular press and individual examinations of the concepts of exploitation and hope. This theory-based section culminates in the author’s own account of what it is to exploit hope and when and why doing so is morally problematic. The second section of the book examines how hope for improved health from unproven medical interventions can be exploited. This includes exploitation of hope in the context of participants in clinical trials, purchasing unproven stem cell interventions, right to try legislation, and crowdfunding for unproven interventions.
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