[Neuroethics: new quality of medical ethics?].

During the last decade there has been a striking growth in interest in ethical issues arising from the development of neurosciences. It was as late as 2002 that the new discipline, called neuroethics, started. It was intended to be a new area of interdisciplinary discourse on moral dilemmas connected with recent advances in, broadly understood, neurosciences.

Toward the clarification of ideas: medical futility, persistent/obstinate therapy and extra/ordinary means.

Despite reluctance of a part of medical society to accept the moral and/or legal permission to euthanasia, there is seemingly a common agreement on the need to resolve the problem of excessive therapy. Several ethical concepts are used to justify decisions to withhold/withdraw such treatment. Three of them are of particular value.

Psychological background of pro-health behavior.

In this study, psychological conditions of pro-health lifestyle behavior have been analyzed. A first research group consisted of 88 healthy people (44 males, 44 females) aged 19-39. Psychological analysis showed a positive correlation between the internal locus of control and adherence to healthy diets; a correlation extending to the knowledge about healthy food.

Bioethics of life programs: taking seriously moral pluralism in clinical settings.

Background: In the more and more globalized world, the experience of moral pluralism (often related to, or based upon, religious pluralism) has become a common issue which ethical importance is undeniable. Potential conflicts between patients' and therapeutic teams' moral views and between moral beliefs of the particular member of this team are being resolved in the light of bioethical theories, among which principlism remains the mainstream approach to biomedical ethics. The question arises, however, whether this approach, in itself, as being strictly bound to the specific and distinct American philosophical tradition, is to be considered the tool for so called ?moral imperialism'.

The origins of bioethics: advances in resuscitations techniques.

During the last years there has been an increasing interest in meta-bioethical issues. This turn in the research focus is regarded as a sign of the maturation of bioethics as a distinct area of an academic inquiry. The role of historic-philosophical reflection is often emphasized.