The brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanual is named Ezekiel J. Emanuel. Ezekiel is a medical doctor, who recently has worked in the Office of Bioethics at the National Institute of Hearlth, which focuses on issues like when medical care should be withdrawn and the patient “allowed” to die.
Dr Emanuel is a self-described Communitarian. What is a Commitarian and what do they believe?
Probably the short handed explanation is the quote from Star Trek: “Some times the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, or more to the point – individual rights must give way to the needs of the collective.
Dr Emanuel is a key advisor to President Obama on the proposed National Health Care policy.
Dr Emanual’s thoughts are written down for posterity in The Ends of Human Life: Medical Ethics in a Liberal Polity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.
This is definitely a person you want to keep an eye on.
Your definition of “communitarianism” is incorrect. It means balancing individual rights with social responsibility for the common good. It does not mean “to give way to the needs of the collective.”
So what you’re saying is you don’t have to give up your individual rights as long as you agree to be “social responsible” and not oppose things being done for the “common good”?
Like people who support the First Amendment as long as you don’t have a opposing opinion.