The emergence and development of bioethics in the UK

Abstract

Bioethics emerged in a specific social and historical context. Its relationship to older traditions in medical ethics and to environmental ethics is an ongoing matter of debate. This article analyses the social, institutional, and economic factors that led to the development of bioethics in the UK in the 1980s, and the course it has taken since. We show how phenomena such as globalisation, the focus on 'ethical legal and social issues' and the empirical turn have affected the methods employed, and argue that ongoing controversies about the nature and possibility of ethical expertise will affect its future.