introduction to Bioethics The terms bioethics and healthcare ethics sometimes are used interchangeably. Bioethics, born out of the rapidly expanding technical environment of the 1900s, is a specifi c domain of ethics focused on moral issues in the fi eld of health care (see Box 2-1). During World War II President Franklin D. Roosevelt assembled a committee to improve medical scientists’ coordination in addressing the medical needs of the military (Jonsen, 2000). As often happens with wartime research and advancements, the work aimed at addressing military needs also affected civilian sectors, such as the fi eld of medicine. Between 1945 and 1965, antibiotic, antihypertensive, antipsychotic, and cancer drugs came into common medical use; surgery entered the heart and the brain; organ transplantation was initiated; and life-sustaining mechanical devices, the dialysis machine, the pacemaker, and the ventilator were invented. (Jonsen, 2000, p. 99