ABSTRACT
The field of bioethics emerged against a tumultuous backdrop. The not-so-distant history of state-sponsored eugenics in Britain, the USA, and Germany loomed large as highly publicized biomedical events in the middle of the 20th century sparked novel public awareness of the relationship between medicine and ethics (or the lack thereof) across the globe. These included the Tuskegee Study and Guatemala Experiments, Jim Crow medical care, and the development of unprecedented life-sustaining technologies ranging from ventilators to artificial heart valves. Yet, even in its infancy, bioethics was not one field, but many. That is still true today and, in many ways, even more so. “Bioethics” includes academics, medical practitioners of every stripe, policy and public health experts, and, increasingly, scientists whose research ranges across the life sciences. If one considers the impact of modern biomedicine on contemporary life, this should not be surprising. Practices of health care are at once scientific—finding empirical answers, saving lives—and political—concerned with constraints like resource distribution and inflected by a host of legal, social, and political considerations.
