title: Bioethics: its philosophical basis and application.
abstract: Contemporary medicine involves a lot more than technologies that now permit effective medical intervention where none was possible before. Among other things, changes in technology have been accompanied by changes in social and cultural attitudes that are having major effects on health care and medical practice. This article provides a brief overview of many of the more important changes and their relationship to developments in the field of medical bioethics.
authors.affiliation: Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057.
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Sass
mesh_terms: D026686:Beneficence; D001675:Bioethics; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D006801:Humans; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012945:Social Values; D035501:Uncertainty; D028722:Virtues