Overview

This book is the first in a series of planned volumes focused on preserving the character of the development of bioethics in particular cultural contexts. As the first of these volumes, Leo Pessini, Christian de Paul de Barchifontaine, and Fernando Lolas Stepke’s work has succeeded well. It has brought together accounts by sch- ars who were crucial to the emergence of bioethics in the Ibero-American cultural domain. This trail-blazing work in the history of bioethics will be of enduring s- nificance. I am deeply in their debt for having shouldered this far from easy task. Bioethics is the product of very particular socio-historical developments. Most prominent among them have been (1) the secularization of the dominant culture of North America, Western Europe, and now Central and South America as well, (2) a deflation of the status and authority of physicians as moral authorities able to guide their own profession, and (3) the salience of a post-traditional animus that gives c- tral place to persons as isolated atomic sources of moral authority. Bioethics initially took shape in North America as a post-Christian, post-professional, post-traditional social movement. This bioethics sought to establish a moral discourse for the public forum, a moral practice able to give practical guidance in hospitals and other insti- tions, and a body of undergirding and justifying theoretical reflections.

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Reviews

From the reviews: Pessini, Barchifontaine, and Lolas have succeeded in gathering and superbly focusing a rich exploration of the origin and development of bioethics in Ibero-America. To understand American bioethics in perspective, from now on one will need to read this volume. It is a major cultural resource.-David Solomon, Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame No one interested in Latin-American studies, and surely no one with interest in the global phenomenon of bioethics, can do without this book. This is a splendid and rich portrayal of the birth and maturation of Ibero-American bioethics.-Nicholas Capaldi, Loyola University New Orleans This volume addresses the topics of the development of bioethics on the territory of Latin America (including the role of Portugal and Spain in it, as these European cultures played a major part in the creation of the Latin American cultures), main features of bioethics, and guidelines for future achievements. It also provides the reader with the possibility to get acquainted with the kind of bioethical perspective that differs quite a lot from the dominant Anglophone, North American and European, bioethics. (Robert Dori i , JAHR, Vol. 2 (4), September, 2011)

From the reviews: Pessini, Barchifontaine, and Lolas have succeeded in gathering and superbly focusing a rich exploration of the origin and development of bioethics in Ibero-America. To understand American bioethics in perspective, from now on one will need to read this volume. It is a major cultural resource.-David Solomon, Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame No one interested in Latin-American studies, and surely no one with interest in the global phenomenon of bioethics, can do without this book. This is a splendid and rich portrayal of the birth and maturation of Ibero-American bioethics.-Nicholas Capaldi, Loyola University New Orleans This volume ... addresses the topics of the development of bioethics on the territory of Latin America (including the role of Portugal and Spain in it, as these European cultures played a major part in the creation of the Latin American cultures), main features of bioethics, and guidelines for future achievements. ... It also provides the reader with the possibility to get acquainted with the kind of bioethical perspective that differs quite a lot from the dominant Anglophone, North American and European, bioethics. (Robert Doricic, JAHR, Vol. 2 (4), September, 2011)

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