Abstract

Bioethics has its roots in the physician–patient relationship. For a long time, bioethicists mainly focused on ethical issues in clinical practice and medical research. More recently, however, there has been an increasing interest in the health of populations. Some of the factors that have fueled this interest are the heightened awareness of inequalities in health between different groups and populations, the recognition of the health-related causes and consequences of poverty, the aging of societies, and perhaps most importantly, the increasing costs of health care.