Editing Bioethics (section)

== Purpose and scope ==

The discipline of bioethics has addressed a wide swathe of human inquiry; ranging from debates over the boundaries of lifestyles (e.g. [[abortion]], [[euthanasia]]), surrogacy, the allocation of scarce health care resources (e.g. [[organ donation]], [[health care rationing]]), to the right to refuse medical care for religious or cultural reasons. Bioethicists disagree among themselves over the precise limits of their discipline, debating whether the field should concern itself with the ethical evaluation of all questions involving biology and medicine, or only a subset of these questions.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Bracanovic, T | title = From integrative bioethics to pseudoscience | journal = Developing World Bioethics | volume = 12 | issue = 3 | pages = 148–156 | date = June 2012 | pmid = 22708689 | doi = 10.1111/j.1471-8847.2012.00330.x }}</ref> Some bioethicists would narrow ethical evaluation only to the [[morality]] of medical treatments or [[technology|technological]] innovations, and the timing of medical treatment of humans. Others would increase the scope of moral assessment to encompass the morality of all moves that would possibly assist or damage organisms successful of feeling fear.

The scope of bioethics has evolved past mere biotechnology to include topics such as [[cloning]], [[gene therapy]], [[life extension]], [[human genetic engineering]], astroethics and life in space,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.astroethics.com/ |title=Astroethics | publisher = Legacy Books | date = 2004 |access-date=21 December 2005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060209/http://www.astroethics.com/ |archive-date=23 October 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| vauthors = Kaçar B |date=20 November 2020|title=If we're alone in the Universe, should we do anything about it?|url=https://aeon.co/essays/if-were-alone-in-the-universe-should-we-do-anything-about-it|access-date=11 December 2020|website=Aeon}}</ref> and manipulation of basic biology through altered DNA, [[Xeno nucleic acid|XNA]] and proteins.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Freemont PF, Kitney RI | year = 2012 | title = Synthetic Biology | publisher = World Scientific | location = New Jersey |  isbn = 978-1-84816-862-6}}</ref> These (and other) developments may affect future evolution and require new principles that address life at its core, such as biotic ethics that values life itself at its basic biological processes and structures, and seeks their propagation.<ref name="Bioethics">{{cite journal | vauthors = Mautner MN | title = Life-centered ethics, and the human future in space | journal = Bioethics | volume = 23 | issue = 8 | pages = 433–440 | date = October 2009 | pmid = 19077128 | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00688.x | s2cid = 25203457 | url = http://www.astro-ecology.com/PDFLifeCenteredBioethics2009Paper.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121102064743/http://www.astro-ecology.com/PDFLifeCenteredBioethics2009Paper.pdf | url-status = live | archive-date = 2 November 2012 }}</ref> Moving beyond the biological, issues raised in public health such as [[vaccination]] and [[resource allocation]] have also encouraged the development of novel ethics frameworks<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ccnpps-ncchpp.ca/repertoire-ethics-frameworks-for-public-health/ |title=Repertoire – Ethics Frameworks for Public Health | publisher = NCCPPH | date = 2022 |access-date=22 October 2022}}</ref> to address such challenges. A study published in 2022 based on the corpus of full papers from eight main bioethics journals demonstrated the heterogeneity of this field by distinguishing 91 topics that have been discussed in these journals over the past half a century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bystranowski |first1=Piotr |last2=Dranseika |first2=Vilius |last3=Żuradzki |first3=Tomasz |date=2022 |title=Half a century of bioethics and philosophy of medicine: A topic-modeling study |journal=Bioethics|volume=36 |issue=9 |pages=902–925 |doi=10.1111/bioe.13087 |issn=0269-9702 |pmid=36170119|pmc=9827984 }}</ref>