Remarks on the Nature of Bioethics and the Bioethicist

The purpose of this article is to present some observations on the nature of bioethics and the bioethicist. For what is proposed, the expository strategy follows the following order: Regarding the nature of bioethics: it takes up the question of its precursors and evaluates the viability of historical attempts to offer a definition or characterization to the problem of the identity of bioethics; suggests some characteristics of bioethics that, together, serve as support and reinforcement for its recognition as an autonomous, necessary and robust field within ethics; and deals with the disciplinary nature of bioethics, asking what the nature of its reflection can or should be: sub-disciplinary, disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary or trans disciplinary. As for the bioethicist, he is concerned with pertinent aspects such as his identity, profession, vocabulary, starting points and common core, and ends with some suggestions around the basic conditions for the exercise of his professional practice