Volume 62 (2007), 3

The basic question of the paper is the position of bioethics among other theories. What is a bioethically coherent methodological point of view – anthropocentrism or biocentrism? Is this theory focused only on the human problems (medicine, law, human rights etc.)? Today the debates about these questions are topical.

Before we start to think about universal and global bioethical norms, we have to ask, whether we really need them. In this paper, we bring three examples to demonstrate the need for a global regulation in biomedicine. The first example shows how the Internet facilitates the human organs and embryos market to boom. The second example focuses on global aspects of… Read more

The analysis of the text of St. Thomas Aquinas shows, that he was influenced by the Aristotelian notion of succession of souls. It means that the human embryo is infused at the moment of conception, first with vegetative soul, then with sensitive souls, and finally with rational soul. When Aquinas’ metaphysical views are considered in accordance with the… Read more

The paper outlines the contemporary discussionon the impact of the new developments in bioethics and in biomedicine have on the concepts of human being and person. It also presents various definitions of the concepts. One of the most pressing bioethical and juridical issues is the moral and legal status of the unborn, closely related to the… Read more

Searching for different meanings of the term „euthanasia“ in philosophical discourse from the Antiquity up to our days, the paper identifies 12 diverse typologies associated with this word. The paper tries to contribute to its preliminary and necessary clarification as a precondition for an informed discussion of euthanasia.

The paper explores philosophical prerequisites for a special bioethical conception and an approach based on pragmatism. It argues that the characteristic features of classical pragmatism, such as naturalism, experimentalism, Dewey’s logic as a method of inquiry and solving life problems, humanism, resolution of individual/community dualism as well as the main… Read more

The grounds of bioethics as one of the applied ethics are philosophical-ethical, though even today searching for these grounds is accompanied by polemics and critical evaluations of ethical theories, approaches and doctrines. The paper’s focus is on deontological ethical theory, which is given a preference by J. Habermas (and other thinkers) in his work The… Read more