ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reflects on European bioethics in the past, present and future, and in so doing considers how comparison between countries and disciplines can enrich bio-ethical discourse. It examines bioethics in social rooms: here the locations include the courtroom, an author’s desk and even society (or societies) at large. The book focuses on clinical rooms, in which a variety of dilemmas arising in the professional-patient encounter are encountered. It considers European bioethics in academic rooms, be these classrooms, offices or even (again) the clinic itself. The book indicates some of the tensions that exist between regard for the individual – who appears to be at the heart of ‘personalised’ medicine – and the wider society.
