ABSTRACT
It is not easy to predict how bioethics will develop thematically and methodologically. In the past decade, the scope of the discipline has constantly expanded and shifted. The ethical debate on new biotechnologies has also been developed in the context of the ethics of technology and information ethics. The relation between bioethics and the social sciences has in the past decade increased in significance, both within bioethics and medical ethics and within the social sciences. There are now debates specifically focused on clinical ethics (Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade 2002). Furthermore, medical practitioners increasingly playing a role in bioethical debates, both because ethics has become established as part of nursing education, and because of the development of an ethics of nursing, focused on particular aspects of the praxis of nursing. Ethical discussions on neurosciences and on the relevance of nanotechnology for bioethics are maturing. Questions of public health ethics and the significance of biotechnology to developing countries can also be expected to be on the agenda in future debates.
