Lo sfondo esistenzialistico della bioetica di H. Tristram Engelhardt

Title: T.H. Engelhardt’s Existentialist Bioethical Background Abstract: This paper aims to explore a topic which has not yet received much attention: namely, the presence of existentialist elements in American bioethics, and particularly in the work of H. Tristram Engelhardt. To what extent can bioethics be connected to existentialism? In fact, bioethics uses principles and calls upon themes that already play central roles in existentialist philosophy: first, the notions of groundless freedom, project, and care; second, a criticism of the moral tradition; and third, an examination of the relation between individual freedom and social rules, as well as between pluralism and public ethics.