INTRODUCTION

“Bioethics” is the ethics of biological and medical technology, and deals with moral questions arising from advances in these fields. Examples of topics in bioethics are: reproductive technologies; medical termination or enhancement of life; donation or sale of organs and other “body parts”; cloning; research and experiments using humans and non-human animals; genetic engineering; and stem-cell research. Bioethics is an area of global ethics that is becoming increasingly important as issues of scientific and technological development affect global biological and health injustices. While historically bioethics was concerned with a doctor's duty to patients and the doctor-patient relationship, in the contemporary environment bioethics concerns are key issues of broader public and political controversy. If you think about which ethical issues most excite the media and politicians, you will probably find that bioethics makes up at least half of the top ten. For example, worries about cloning caused national debate in the UK and a parliamentary debate in 2000 and 2001; “Dolly the sheep” – the first successfully cloned mammal – became a household name and a national treasure. Having been highly controversial while alive, in death she is stuffed and can be viewed at the Connect Gallery, National Museum of Scotland.

Dolly is a good example of why bioethical issues are so controversial. They raise new issues that challenge conceptions about what life is and, importantly when we consider interventions in humans, what a human life is.