A Bioethical Look at Veritatis splendor

Abstract

The appearance of the encyclical letter Veritatis splendor (The Splendor of Truth), in 1993, coincided with the years of expansion of bioethics and also with a profusion of unprecedented problems originating, among other things, in emerging technologies, biotechnology and the impulse of biomedical and psychosocial research. After an introduction showing what the bioethical perspective of this document is all about, a summary of the encyclical is given, based on its structure. Subsequently, the main ideas are extracted from philosophy, ethics and bioethics, which are offered for reflection, with the intention of serving as input for decision making in these delicate areas of human life. Then, some ethical and bioethical situations are mentioned in which the highlighted ideas may have applicability, in order to adequately solve these problems, which are more pressing at the two extremes of human life: its origin and its end. It is concluded that, in addition to the above, it is very important to know the perspective of the person who acts, to avoid the errors derived from the so-called third person ethics; that the relationship between truth, freedom and good cannot be ignored; and that the contents of natural law are very important to guide decision-making and the biolegal developments that these matters demand.