Life's extremes: a humanist perspective of birth and death
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20453/ah.v69i1.8148Keywords:
bioethics, embryonic development, terminal care, death with dignity, palliative careAbstract
Contemporary bioethics faces its most complex dilemmas at the two extremes of human life: birth and death. This essay examines these extremes from a humanist perspective, combining the latest scientific evidence with Western philosophy and artistic tradition. At the beginning of life, it analyzes the moral status of the embryo, assisted reproductive technologies, gene editing via CRISPR-Cas9, and the management of surplus embryos, emphasizing the tensions that arise between reproductive autonomy, social justice, and the precautionary principle. At the end of life, it addresses palliative care, the limitation of therapeutic effort, advance directives, death with dignity, and international regulation of euthanasia and medically assisted suicide. It is proposed that art constitutes a legitimate methodological resource for bioethical teaching and reflection, as it provides a language capable of naming what science has not yet formulated.
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