ABSTRACT
In order to understand the role of ethics in the attempted resolution of biopolitical issues, one needs a more general and in-depth background understanding of the relationship between ethics and politics. The legitimacy and survival of a political system or regime depended therefore upon its exemplification of the moral principles that united the society. Natural law, which natural man knew intuitively, was the authoritative source of ethical principles. The advancement of science was expected to confirm the moral judgments of the Enlightenment. Description of the emergence of bioethics in modern society may be adequate for purposes of understanding public attitudes without being complete in all respects. Bioethics as ethics of survival are situational within a holistic and evolutionary context. For bioethics imply conscious and conscientious individuals—products of biological and cultural evolution and capable of classifying attitudes and acts as right and wrong, wise and foolish, with qualifications regarded as appropriate.
