The origins of bioethics: advances in resuscitations techniques.

During the last years there has been an increasing interest in meta-bioethical issues. This turn in the research focus is regarded as a sign of the maturation of bioethics as a distinct area of an academic inquiry. The role of historic-philosophical reflection is often emphasized. It should be noted that there is a rather common agreement that the future of bioethics lies in the critical reflection on its past, in particular, on the very origins of this discipline. Sharing Caplan's opinion, advances in medicine technologies, especially the introduction of respirators and artificial heart machines, is considered as one of the main issues that started bioethics. Using methods of historical as well as meta-ethical research, this article aims at describing the role of advances in resuscitation techniques in the emergence of bioethics and at exploring how bioethical reflection has been shaped by technological developments. A brief historical analysis permits to say that there is a close bond between the emergence of bioethics and the introduction of sophisticated resuscitation technologies into medical practice. The meta-ethical reflection reveals that advances in resuscitation techniques not only initiated bioethics in the second half of the 20(th) century but influenced its evolution by (i) posing a question of justice in health care, (ii) altering commonly accepted ontological notions of human corporeality, and (iii) reconsidering the very purpose of medicine.