Biomedicine between the Political and the Ethical

Nowadays, the human condition is that we are forced to adapt to the data streaming from developments in various sciences. While in theory and in practice the pursuit of knowledge in the service of humanity and nature has represented epistemic urgent necessity, it has also become an arena of daunting questions in terms of institutional investment in the everyday reality of people and their livelihoods. The reason for this is that practical and clinical applications regarding the living organism and the human being do not place an ethical value on people's personal rights to freedom, dignity and good health. Perhaps the hybrid modification of living organisms, specifically humans, constitutes par excellence a critical problem: trafficking in organs and interventions into the growth of cells, organisms, and even behaviors and moods. Such is the context of critical philosophical reflection on man's fate, life, and the universe at the present time. Bioethics arose as a field mainly to address the generalised human fear that institutions and laboratory personnel may mismanage the theoretical results of science. Perhaps the most challenging branch of science for critics today is in the domain of biomedicine in relation to human genome projects. Here, philosophy of critical values can perhaps deconstruct some of the political, economical, financial and informative silences and taboos in the scientific community – all aimed at contributing to the liberation of man from any danger that threatens life and nature.

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Nowadays, the human condition is that we are forced to adapt to the data streaming from developments in various sciences. While in theory and in practice the pursuit of knowledge in the service of humanity and nature has represented epistemic urgent necessity, it has also become an arena of daunting questions in terms of institutional investment in the everyday reality of people and their livelihoods. The reason for this is that practical and clinical applications regarding the living organism and the human being do not place an ethical value on people's personal rights to freedom, dignity and good health. Perhaps the hybrid modification of living organisms, specifically humans, constitutes par excellence a critical problem: trafficking in organs and interventions into the growth of cells, organisms, and even behaviors and moods. Such is the context of critical philosophical reflection on man's fate, life, and the universe at the present time. Bioethics arose as a field mainly to address the generalised human fear that institutions and laboratory personnel may mismanage the theoretical results of science. Perhaps the most challenging branch of science for critics today is in the domain of biomedicine in relation to human genome projects. Here, philosophy of critical values can perhaps deconstruct some of the political, economical, financial and informative silences and taboos in the scientific community – all aimed at contributing to the liberation of man from any danger that threatens life and nature.

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