Epistemological status of bioethics: state of the proposed issue

Abstract

This article deals with the epistemological status of bioethics. It starts from the vision of Van Rensselaer
Potter, who proposed bioethics as a bridge between sciences and humanities. Throughout the text,
we analyze how different authors have conceptualized multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and
transdisciplinarity in bioethics, highlighting their implications for the generation of knowledge. In view of
this debate, it is proposed to define bioethics as a branch of ethics with an interdisciplinary methodology.
This interdisciplinary methodology is understood, in the first place, as an integration of knowledge from
experimental, human and philosophical sciences. In the latter we find the worldview, a concept on
which the proposal for understanding the interdisciplinary nature of bioethics is based. Finally, the paper
concludes that the interdisciplinary nature of bioethics allows the articulation of knowledge and values in
a coherent ethical framework, enhancing its ability to respond to contemporary ethical challenges.