Unlimited Human Autonomy — A Cultural Bias?

Autonomy has become a dominant bioethical value in the Western world. It is the basis of many ethical decisions, and considerations of autonomy influence legislators, judges, and the public alike. The predominance of autonomy has been described by one of its critics as verging on the “tyrannous.”1 In this essay I describe three recent events in Israel that run counter to this trend. They include court decisions and the enactment of laws that clearly place Israel in a unique, and perhaps lonely, position in the Western world. The most recent event was a decision2 by a district judge who ordered . . .