Emerging health order, values and the law: conflicts and resolution

The realm of contemporary healthcare is pluralistic and complex. It is a blend of scientific promise, moral values, socio-economic constraints, cultural sensitivities, religious beliefs, political imperatives and commercial interests. Institutionalization of health care, with growing governmental control and the desire towards resource optimization, has widened the rift between individual and community perspectives. The quest for longer life-span, the urge to have 'perfect' babies, the curiosity to know our past and future, and many more expectations, have added new dimensions to human health and healthcare. In several areas ethical concepts are not clear and, at times, right and wrong contemplate redefinition posing serious challenge to the cultivators of law. The issue of biotechnological achievements and their social assimilation contemplates a much deeper dialogue than what is being done in contemporary ethical discussions. This paper is an attempt to identify and integrate the multiple roots of healthcare ethics in order to evolve holistic paradigms in the world of prevailing conceptual ambiguity.