"a deconstruction of the very idea of ethics"

That's Richard Doerflinger's judgment on the teachings of Dartmouth bioethicist Ronald Green:

Doerflinger argues that Green's proposed "Copernican revolution" in ethics, to justify embryo-destructive research and abortion, "endangers a far broader class of humans, by elevating to a moral principle the tendency of powerful and articulate people in society to regard vulnerable others as undeserving of equal regard. Its logical implication is that there are no such things as unalienable human rights, only socially constructed privileges granted to those who enjoy personal qualities and social roles deemed valuable by the majority at a given time."

Read the whole thing:  http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_journal_of_bioethics/v002/2.1doerflinger.html