Everyday Bioethics

Suggests a different perspective on the relationships between science, ethics and society, based upon the distinction and integration of two fields: the frontier bioethics, which examines the development of biomedicine; and the bioethics of everyday life, which concerns people from around the world.

Giovanni Berlinguer (Author)

Chapter 1. Procreation and Birth Procreation may become a free choice of individuals. Obstacles created by society and facilities provided by technologies are discusses, together with the status of embryos and of human cloning. Chapter 2. Population, Ethics, and Equity The population policies cannot be defined on the basis of the interest of the state. Human rights, the value of pluralism and the search for equity are the principles of democracy in the demographic choices. Chapter 3. Work and Health: Foundations and Ethical Conflicts The relationships between health and work lies at the interface between biology and ethics. The conflicting interests and values in this field are discussed in their historical development and perspectives. Chapter 4. The Human Body: From Slavery to the Biomarket Every part of the human body, from DNA to gametes to organs, is in danger to be transformed into a commodity. A comparison is presented between the arguments put forward in favour of slavery and of the biomarket. Chapter 5. Global Health After 1492, when the "microbial unification of the world" begun, the interchange of diseases and health has become an international issue. The main contradiction is now between the growing possibilities of medicine and the deepening of inequities between and inside the countries. Afterword Index