BIOETHICS DIVERSITY AND A POSSIBLE “GLOBAL BIOETHICS”:REFLECTIONS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE SOCIAL SYSTEM

Abstract

“Bioethics” implies two aspects. On the one hand, it means certain situ-ations called as bioethics, on the other hand, intellectual reflections on such situations. People, even professionals in this field, rarely pay attention to the difference between both implications in ordinary discourses. However, the relation of the reflection to the situation means that of the second-order observation to the first-order one—because the situation contains ‘observa-tion’ as its indispensable element. Therefore, the former bioethics precedes the latter bioethics. And it is the very situation that is diverse