Indywidualizm versus kulturalizm w bioetyce – na przykładach z USA i Kanady
Individualism versus culturalism in bioethics – based on developments in North America

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on tensions between cultural and individualistic tendencies in the North American bioethical discourse. Described and analyzed are examples of how culturalism developed in US and Canadian bioethics. Bioethics based on the concept of the patient’s autonomy is usually associated with Western culture, while culturalism as such is generally attributed to cultural bioethics evolved in other parts of the world, notably in Latin America, Asia and Africa. However, contrary to such a notion, an analysis of this phenomenon indicates that a culturalistic approach to bioethics is not alien to western countries as it has been combined there with group, sub-cultural or national identity formation processes. Bioethics is indeed becoming a medium of producing, strengthening and shaping cultural differences.

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