The word "bioethics": its birth and the legacies of those who shaped it.
Extensive historical sleuthing reveals that the word "bioethics" and the field of study it names experienced, in 1970/1971, a "bilocated birth" in Madison, Wisconsin, and in Washington, D.C. Van Rensselaer Potter, at the University of Wisconsin first coined the term; and André Hellegers, at Georgetown University, at the very least, latched onto the already-existing word "bioethics" and first used it in an institutional way to designate the focused area of inquiry that became an academic field of learning and a movement regarding public policy and the life sciences. A further comparison of the Potter and the Hellegers/Georgetown understandings of bioethics and the relative acceptance of the two views will appear in the March 1995 issue of this journal.
Reich
W T
WT
School of Medicine, Georgetown University.
D001675:Bioethics / Q000266:history*; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D014481:United States