O naravi bioetike

Of two very seriously ill newborn babies only one had the chance to survive, but not without the other baby's heart transplant. What should be done in a situation when life is to be taken from a child cortically, yet not biologically deceased, in order to save another child's life? On the example of this bioethically relevant case from the medical practice in Australia, the author considers the usual reactions from the positions of different ethical streamlines and viewpoints, from discursive ethics, hermeneutical philosophy, through Marxism and feminism to Catholic ethics. Defining bioethics as an applied philosophy through which one approaches philosophical questions and issues for obtaining valid and justifiable answers as well as practical solutions, the author avails himself of the mentioned example to illustrate the problems and difficulties this new discipline faces. He also indicates a deficiency in traditional ethical approaches to new questions posed by the development of contemporary science and technology.