The Role of Bioethics in the Resolution of Environmental Conflicts

Abstract

This article establishes the bioethical criteria that should be taken into account in the resolution of conflicts of environmental significance and proposes a procedure of justification and analysis. Its objective is to identify the gaps in knowledge about critical methodologies and urges for deliberative processes that favor plural and proactive participation. It poses as a thesis that in environmental problems it is necessary to understand the contingent nature of life. At the base of environmental problems there exists a controversial way to value biodiversity and the environment, and it is considered convenient to conceive of biodiversity and the environment as common goods, given that the welfare and survival of the population inhabiting the area are depends on them. It concludes by pointing out that the setting of bioethical criteria is a task to be developed and reveals the emergence of a field that unites new knowledge and practices around bioethics.

Keywords

• bioethics
• environment
• unrest
• common goods
• reflexive equilibrium
• deliberation