Reflections for having bioethics involved in the human rights culture

Abstract

Bioethics can be interpreted as a critical reflection on life and health, a new way to make decisions in these fields, a social reform movement, and an academic discipline. In any case, Bioethics implies an interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue. At the same time, human rights, as universal moral guidelines, provide a plausible basis for this intercultural dialogue, for they enable the identification of a core of transcultural values that can work as “moral minima” in the dialogue among different cultures and the search for international consensuses. This article sets forth the triple connection (historical-genealogical, conceptual and practical) between bioethics and human rights, and reflects on some of the conditions that should be taken into account for bioethics to be involved in the human rights culture.