Applied ethics takes some unremarkable ethical theory, such as utilitarianism and applies it to a particular medical, pharmaceutical, political, legal or commercial problem. The chief difficulty with applied ethics is that many persons can disagree with the selected starting ethical theory. For example, it is known that both Christian s and Muslim s often disagree with utilitarian solutions. To avoid this problem, one of the newer approaches to applied ethics is to revive the ancient practice of casuistry .
Casuistry attempts to establish a plan of action to respond to particular facts.
In a modern casuistic approach to say, a biomedical issue, two boards of experts are appointed. The ethical board might represent disparate ethical theories, e.g. a Jew, Christian, Buddhist, Humanist and Muslim. The scientific board represents relevant medical, legal, psychological and philosophical disciplines. The ethical board evaluates situations, and recommends and ratifies responses. The scientific board explains the causes and effects of each ethical state and response.