Abstract

After a number of years during which bioethics seemed to have become static and was even called boring (Jonsen 2000), various internal and external factors are reshaping its scope and methodologies. Two calls coming from within the field are for bioethics to “broaden” and to “globalize” (Wikler 1997; Brock 2000; Macklin 2001; Benatar et al. 2005; Daniels 2006; Green et al. 2008; Millum and Emanuel 2012). However, either call can be understood narrowly or robustly. A restrained view of broadening could mean expanding the scope of bioethics beyond the clinic and the bio-lab, while remaining confined to particular national borders. And a narrow understanding of globalizing bioethics would mean simply exporting the familiar and possibly staid analyses and methods to other faraway places, namely, less developed countries where the discipline is still nascent.