Personalistic bioethics in the face of biomedical challenges

In Poland in recent years, the words bioethics and bioethical have become better known and even popular. This is mainly thanks to the social media, which actively participate in the discussion on the legal regulation of bioethical issues, in particular extracorporeal fertilisation, called in vitro for short. This much-needed discussion is an opportunity not only to solve a specific problem, such as passing a good law, but also to raise the level of knowledge and ethical thinking in society. For it is easier to arouse admiration for the achievements of modern biomedical sciences, but more difficult to invite moral reflection on the research itself and its practical application.
This publication - to cite just a few examples - is just such an invitation. It is accompanied by the conviction that what is needed is both the hope that, thanks to scientific discoveries, it will be possible to come to the aid of mankind, and the awareness that this can be done with good means, in a way that corresponds to human dignity. The question of the ethics of biomedical measures, which very often remain at the experimental stage for the time being, is by no means a desire to extinguish hope. However, it would be immoral not only to take away hope, but also to spread illusory hopes or to announce promises that cannot be fulfilled. This is only one, and not the most important, ethical consideration. For among the fundamental problems is the application of the principle that not everything that is technically possible is morally permissible. Although not only many ethicists but also many scientists agree with this premise today, in practice there are significant divergences in the interpretation of this principle.