The Birth of Bioethics

Bioethics represents a dramatic revision of the centuries-old ethics that governed the behaviour of physicians and their relationships with patients. Those ethics were challenged in the years after World War II by remarkable advances in biomedical science and medicine that raised questions about the defintion of death, the use of life-support systems, organ transplantation, and reproductive manipulation. In response, philosophers and theologians, lawyers and social scientists joined with physicians and scientists to rethink and revise the old standards. Governments established commissions to recommend policies. Courts heard arguments and legislatures passed laws. This book is the first broad history of the growing field of bioethics. Covering the period 1947-1987, it examines the origin and evolution of the debates over human experimentation, genetic engineering, organ transplantation, termination of life-sustaining treatment, and new reproductive technologies. It assesses the contributions of philosophy, theology, law and the social sciences to the expanding discourse of bioethics. Written by one of the fields founders, it is based on extensive archival research into resources that are difficult to obtain and on interviews with many leading figures. A very readable account of the development of bioethics, the book stresses the history of ideas but does not neglect the social and cultural context and the people involved.