Ethics and bioethics concerning challenges in the 21st Century

Abstract

The contemporary world is characterized by a formidable accumulation of scientific knowledge, which is responsible for developing the technology that permeates all latitudes of the planet and is incorporated, so virtually irreplaceably, to the daily life of human beings. However, the world is in a borderline: serious responsibilities determined by the process of increasingly aggressive human intervention in the biosphere (accelerating its deterioration) and the very human biology, reaching its genetic identity. Humanity is wrapped in a moral dilemma, since it is found that most of the benefits offered by human knowledge —the whole set of scientific and technological progress of humanity— remains inaccessible to most of the universal family. A recurring issue in today’s society is to establish the boundaries between normal and abnormal, between natural and artificial. Is the human being willing, once again, to transgress the parameters established by her concerning what is normal, anatomically and physiologically? Will she not be satisfied by merely making her biological structure sufficiently adapted to the current practices of the species? Will she want more? In the singular historical transition experienced by contemporary society, the emergence of a new ethical reflection to modulate human behavior has become imperative, so that the actions of men and women can converge to the achievement of universal benefits, so as not to endanger the very survival of human beings on the planet.