Abstract
Respect for life is the foundation for biomedical ethics. This branch of ethics differs from some others because of the transparent and self-evident nature of the good that it ought to seek. The tradition of Hippocrates expresses this in terms of doing what is beneficial to life and avoiding harm; yet medicine and surgery change lives and alter natural processes. This forces us to ask:
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What is life?
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Is it simply something “given”?
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Do we have a right to intervene unnaturally?
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What may be the limits of our tampering with life?
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© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Keyes, C.D. (1991). Transplantation and Foundational Biomedical Ethical Values. In: Keyes, C.D. (eds) New Harvest. Contemporary Issues in Biomedicine, Ethics, and Society. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0489-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0489-3_2
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6785-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0489-3
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