[Bioethics is dead. Long live medical ethics!]

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Medical Ethics
• Philosophy of Medicine

Background:

• Academic bioethics is experiencing a significant crisis.
• A segment of bioethicists has begun to relativize the ethical prohibition against killing innocent human beings.
• This shift has led to an association with industries involved in abortion and euthanasia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a paradigmatic crisis within academic bioethics.
• To argue that relativizing the prohibition against killing has corrupted bioethics.
• To explore the loss of connection between bioethics and ethical, political, and legal discourse.

Main Methods:

• Philosophical analysis of bioethical discourse.
• Ethical critique of contemporary bioethical trends.
• Historical examination of the evolution of bioethical principles.

Main Results:

• The paper posits that academic bioethics has been corrupted by its association with the "death industry."
• Bioethics has lost its integral connection to broader ethical, political, and legal discussions.
• A divergence exists between the ethical stances of many bioethicists and conscientious medical practitioners.

Conclusions:

• Revival of bioethics is contingent upon re-engaging with the principle of the sacredness of human life.
• Medical ethics, with its inherent "do not kill" tenet, offers a potential foundation for this revival.
• Conscientious physicians possess a more robust ethical understanding than many contemporary bioethicists.