The past of the idea of progress and the future of bioethics

Abstract

The article starts from the fiftieth anniversary of “bioethics” neologism to recall the genuine conception of bioethics in the introducer of the term, V.R. Potter. Then, in the paper you find the critique of techno-scientific progress clearly present in the Potter’s writings and in those of contemporary thinkers and philosophers. The conclusion, even in the dramatic scenario of the recent pandemic crisis, goes both in the direction of a downsizing of the concept of progress in the biomedical field, and in the sense of the proposal for a deeper reflection on the purposes of research and therapy.