Liberalism and Biomedical Progress: A Positive View

This paper argues in favor of the thesis that liberalism should stand firmly on the side of biomedical progress. The reasons for this position do not lie in any specific and substantive bioethical view, but in an appreciation of the very liberal view about human freedom and a free social order. The author considers many issues –regarding economic, social and political, and moral aspects– posed by biomedical progress, and concludes that the issue of biomedical progress is the first great intellectual and political question to present itself following the demise of socialist ideology. This represents a great opportunity for liberalism: we might say that we have returned to its golden age.