Intercultural Reasoning: The Challenge for International Bioethics

Abstract

The exportation of Western biomedicine throughout the world has not resulted in a systematic homogenization of scientific ideology but rather in the proliferation of many forms and practices of biomedicine. Similarly, in the last decade, bioethics has become increasingly an international enterprise. Although there may be consensus regarding the inherent value of ethical discourse as it relates to health and medical care, there are disagreements about the nature and parameters of medical morality. This lack of consensus exists because our beliefs about morality are culturally constituted, embedded in social, religious, and political ideologies that influence particular individuals and communities at specific historical moments.