Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics (
2015)
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Abstract
A new world has probably emerged through the progression of technology which has led to significant
debates on social, cultural, legal, and ethical issues, especially in the biomedical field in this century.
Application of physician-patient relationship, principles of pluralism, autonomy, democracy, human
dignity, and human rights is being challenged within the medicine and health-care system of today.
Development of technology-based remedies has fostered greater degrees of medicalization. Hence, the
automatic application of such technologies risks distorting the nature of medicine. To be sure, there is a
cultural shift that is affecting the society that is increasingly unable to adapt to traditional legal systems.
This cultural shift, perhaps, demands new ethics. This entry aims to evaluate the gap between traditional
deontological nature of medicine and the emerging new ethics and assess why bioethical reflection is
needed.