Les trois générations de la bioéthique

Bioethics is still a young discipline. Nonetheless, three stages characterize its history ofless than a quarter of a century. Its inception was probably frankly secular, bornfrom the lack of traditional points of référence to reply to the new questions with which moral conscience was confronted by the spectacular development of bio-medical science. A second «génération», though marked by a more explicit involvement on behalf of theological trends, was characterized above ail by the préoccupation with social justice and the urgent need for international législation. Today the discipline has probably reached its cruising speed and a certain number of questions seem to occupy with greater insistence the Christian moralisf s reflexion : the status ofthe embryo, euthanasia, the quality of life, the demographie explosion, the meaning of natural law. . . These problems require particular attention on behalf ofthe communal or collective aspects of ethical questioning.Boné Édouard. Les trois générations de la bioéthique. In: Revue théologique de Louvain, 24ᵉ année, fasc. 4, 1993. pp. 478-492