From Mirriam-Webster Dictionary:
“A discipline dealing with the ethical implications of biological research and applications especially in medicine.”
From Global Bioethics: Building on the Leopold Legacy: by Van Rensselaer Potter:
“A bridge between the sciences and the humanities in the service of world-wide human health and a protected environment.”
As a discipline, bioethics examines ethical issues raised by medical practice and new developments in life sciences and medicine. This examination helps healthcare providers, patients, families, policy makers, medical researchers, developers and many more make informed decisions regarding conduct and care.
It is important to distinguish bioethics as a discipline which applies to all fields of biological research, study and healthcare. By qualifying it so, bioethics may be considered an interdisciplinary field of study which includes all manner of medical practitioners, researchers, consultants and administrators.
There are many similar terms you may have heard, which could be considered subsets of bioethics. Examples are biomedical ethics, medical ethics, clinical ethics and healthcare ethics. These tend to refer to specific disciplines of medical practice only, often excluding others. An interdisciplinary definition of bioethics, according to Linda MacDonald Glenn, “suggests a synergism, where one discipline gathers strength from another.”
It is Linda’s hope that the discipline of bioethics will not just help patients, biological and medical professionals, researchers and policy makers; it will bring awareness of ethical issues to the public that will have an impact on future generations and our environment.
Linda MacDonald Glenn has written an article in this topic. Read her other articles.
