How bioethics was born
- Topic
Bioethics arose in the United States between 1960 and 1980, when new medical technology and research abuses forced a fresh look at ethics.
What it is
Medical ethics is as old as medicine, but bioethics as a discipline is recent. It was born in the United States between the 1960s and the 1980s, when three forces met: technologies that forced choices (chronic haemodialysis, transplants, mechanical ventilation), scandals in research on human beings, and the civil rights movements, which reached patients too. The word «bioethics» was used in 1970 by the oncologist Van Rensselaer Potter, of the University of Wisconsin, in a broad sense of a bridge between biology and human values; almost at the same time, André Hellegers put it in the name of the institute he founded at Georgetown in 1971, already with the meaning that prevails today: the ethics of medicine and research. This page tells that origin; the specific abuses and the Belmont Report have their own pages.
Structure
- Technological root: chronic haemodialysis became possible from 1961, when Belding Scribner devised the arteriovenous cannula; there were more patients than machines and someone had to choose.
- Research root: Nuremberg, Tuskegee and the cases exposed by Beecher showed that the researcher's good intentions do not protect the subject.
- Social root: the civil rights and consumer movements questioned the authority of experts; the patient became a holder of rights.
- Philosophical root: Potter thought of a global ethics of survival joining biological facts and values; the Georgetown school centred it on medicine.
- In 1992, at the University of Washington (Seattle), Albert Jonsen gathered the pioneers to mark 30 years since the Life article, which they took as the symbolic birth date.
Milestones in the birth of bioethics
| Year | Event | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Nuremberg Code, after the trial of the Nazi doctors | First international code to require voluntary consent in research |
| 1962 | Seattle committee to allocate chronic haemodialysis | A committee decides, also on non-medical criteria, who gets a scarce resource |
| 1966 | Henry K. Beecher's article on 22 unethical studies | A prestigious doctor denounces his colleagues from the inside |
| 1969 | Founding of the Hastings Center | First centre devoted to the ethical problems of medicine and biology |
| 1970–1971 | Potter uses the word «bioethics»; Hellegers founds the Kennedy Institute at Georgetown | The discipline gets a name and institutions |
| 1974–1979 | National Research Act and Belmont Report | Respect for persons, beneficence and justice as the principles of research |
| 2005 | Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UNESCO) | Bioethics becomes a human rights matter for all States |
In clinical practice
- Hospital and research ethics committees are direct heirs of this history: hard decisions are made with several perspectives, not by a single doctor.
- The Seattle dilemma is still alive whenever intensive care beds or transplant organs are short: selection criteria must be public and fair.
- The Beecher case teaches that publication in a prestigious journal does not guarantee that a study was ethical; journals now require ethics committee approval.
- Knowing the origin helps in exams: the principles were not born in the abstract but as answers to concrete abuses and dilemmas.
Legal framework in Colombia
- Law 23 of 1981, art. 54: the doctor follows the country's rules and the recommendations of the World Medical Association on biomedical research, transplants, the diagnosis of death and other subjects.
- Resolution 8430 of 1993, art. 15: informed consent in research must explain the aims, procedures, risks, benefits, alternatives and the freedom to withdraw.
- Colombia is a member State of UNESCO, which adopted the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights in 2005.
- Official texts checked on 2026-11-13 at funcionpublica.gov.co (Law 23 of 1981) and minsalud.gov.co (Resolution 8430 of 1993).
Test yourself
Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.
Which 1962 event in Seattle is often taken as the symbolic birth date of bioethics?
A committee that chose which patients would receive chronic haemodialysis, a scarce resource; Life magazine reported it in November 1962.
What did Henry K. Beecher expose in 1966?
In the New England Journal of Medicine he described 22 published studies that put their subjects' health or lives at risk without proper consent.
Who used the word «bioethics» in 1970, and in what sense?
The oncologist Van Rensselaer Potter, of the University of Wisconsin, as a bridge between biology and human values; his book on it came out in 1971.
Which two centres founded academic bioethics in the United States?
The Hastings Center (1969, founded by Daniel Callahan and Willard Gaylin) and Georgetown's Kennedy Institute of Ethics (1971, André Hellegers).
Connections
Educational content on ethics and health law; not legal advice. Laws and case law change: each page links the official text and says when it was last checked. For a real case, read the text in force and ask a lawyer or the medical ethics tribunal.
Sources: Bioética: una palabra con historia (Fernando Lolas Stepke) (Universidad de Chile, Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios en Bioética, 1997); Brief life of Henry Knowles Beecher, anesthetist and late-blooming ethicist (Harvard Magazine, 2017); Who we are (The Hastings Center, 2026); About the Kennedy Institute of Ethics (Georgetown University, 2026); Ley 23 de 1981, por la cual se dictan normas en materia de ética médica (Función Pública, Gestor Normativo, 1981); Resolución 8430 de 1993: normas científicas, técnicas y administrativas para la investigación en salud (Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, 1993).
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Representative model, for educational purposes only.