Editorial: Living Bioethics Dictionary Project

- Darryl Macer
Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 12 (2002), 121.

This issue comes out at the same time as the first edition of the UNESCO/IUBS/Eubios Bioethics Dictionary is put on line at the Eubios Ethics Institute web site. We want global feedback on this living dictionary, as a freely accessible on-line dictionary. It is accessible through the Internet site:

<http://eubios.info/biodict.html>

Updates will be listed in a separate file. After several months the second edition will appear, in which all the following words will be defined, and further entries will be added. It is expected to then produce a hard copy, which will be distributed widely without profit. Please also note that the Dictionary is available on the EubiosCD, and further details appear on page 159 in this issue. This dictionary is more than bioethics for biologists, or any other field, it is multidisciplinary and cross-cultural. Help us make it better! We will be adding more words, including some description of influential bioethicists, in the future, we welcome your suggestions, and entries.

This issue starts with further comments on the Eubios Declaration, and together with the dictionary, I hope that publicity will bring more signatories and comments. This paper includes a number of papers in medical ethics, looking at the social interactions in the process of medical encounters and decision making. Prainsack asks whether we can respiritualize medicine. Human beings are more than machines, and medical ethics is more than mechanical. Asai points out that even with the most elaborate of decision making schemes professionals and all participants must have humility when making decisions because there will always be a place for judgment.

There are three papers looking at the issues for developing countries, including an extract that questions the benefits of intercultural adoption, concluding that it is a good thing, with the experience of Amara in Australia. This issue of the journal again is 40 pages, and the total of the four issues in 2002 is now 160 pages, i.e. averaging 40 pages an issue. I continue to receive many worthy papers for publication, and we welcome more. There are still few journals in bioethics online for free access, and this mode of open access is one reason that people submit here. We welcome feedback, and for those with comments on the Asian Bioethics Constitution please go to page 158.

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