The reflections offered by this book seek to advance the foundation of a global bioethical proposal that considers planetary survival as its primary concern vis-a-vis a risk society. The positioning of a fresh interpretation of the ethics of responsibility points to this horizon of understanding, reconstructed from the works of philosopher Hans Jonas, sociologist Ulrich Beck, Peru-based French philosopher Francois Vallaeys, and planetary thinker Edgar Morin.
On a minimal biological basis, the human being is the only animal that needs to determine the “hows” of their existence in order to survive. Without this intelligent appropriation of existence, humanity is constantly in jeopardy. At present, technoscientific rationality has not only proved insufficient for such human challenge, but has also been contrary to the long-term sustainability of humanity.
In the face of planetary survival, the essays presented herein regard the ethics of responsibility as the key to theoretically and conceptually orienting the construction of global bioethics to address two cross-cutting problems of our risk societies: the impacts of scientific-technical advances and the inadequacy of current moral approaches to such impacts.