Bioethics in the Great White North

Abstract

"When I was contacted to author this piece, I was invited to discuss bioethics in North America. I considered this and declined, but added that I would gladly contribute a piece on bioethics in Canada. As I am sure this journal issue will demonstrate, bioethics is different from continent to continent, and from country to country. This is not to say that there are no similarities between countries and continents: indeed, most of the world is struggling to determine how to best finance health care – and the majority of the affluent nations are trying to decide whether or not to allow or prohibit embryonic stem cell research. But social structures, available resources and values, vary from country to country therefore given the brevity of this piece it was necessary to limit my contribution to one country."