Bioethics and Religion (See Religion and Bioethics)

Abstract

When bioethics first appeared many practitioners of the new discipline were theologians and religious scholars. The original core of the bioethical literature was produced by philosophers and theologians. Both disciplines were associated with broad and critical perspectives on relevant moral challenges. However, such disciplinary characteristics quickly disappeared when bioethics evolved into a separate area of study with its own professional and disciplinary specifics. Theologians (and philosophers) rapidly morphed into bioethicists distancing themselves from exclusively academic analysis and focusing on practical issues in clinical medicine and research.