 What is the relation between moral theory and bioethics? There is no straightforward answer to this question. So much depends upon whether we consider bioethics in its academic, clinical, or policy-oriented instantiations. And further, there is wide variance in what we have in mind when we talk about moral theory. Besides this, the very distinction between moral theory, on the hand, and the problems and issues to be addressed in the practical realm, on the other, has been called into serious question. Still and all, it is difficult to imagine bioethics (in any form) in the total absence of moral theory. Especially if modestly conceived as a set of substantive organizing assumptions about morality, and a commitment to a certain approach to moral reasoning, it is difficult to view moral theory as anything other than indispensable to bioethics.