POTTER'S PERSONAL HISTORY OF

BiOETHics. A N EXAMINATION AND SURVEY*

Russo Giovanni

RESUMEN

En este aitículo se consignan los principales puntos de la estructuración Bioética hecha por V.R.
Potter. El comienzo global de la Bioética fue basado en la definición que Potter hizo de ésla a
manera de Ciencia de la Supervivencia, derivada de la Ética de la Tiena de A. Leopold. La
supervivencia es subdividida en 5 categorias de las cuales es la Stipeiyivencia Aceptable la meta
moral del ejercicio bioético, ejemplificada a nivel social con el DesaiTollo Sostenible, pero que
añade el deber de la auto-regulación para el ser humano en la era actiial. De no alcanzai' la
contención moral sobre los desarrollos técnicos y económicos, el flujo de los acontecimientos
seda fatal para la humanidad y el planeta. La Bioética Global llama por una articulación, entre las
ramas del conocimiento médico y ambiental, que deben trabajar sobre las actuaciones moralmen-
te negativas de la sociedad civil actual.

ABSTRACT

lilis article surmnaiizes main viewpoints on V.R. Potter's Bioetlúcal framework. World-wide
beginning for Bioetliics was based on Potter's definition considering it as Science ofStii-vival.
That proposal respectively had its root on AldtfLeopold's Land Ethic. Survival is subdivided in
5 categories from which Acceptable Sitr\nval represents the moral goal for Bioethics. Acceptable
Survival, for social instance, might be related to Sustainable Development idea. However, an
emphasis on mankind self-restraint duty is strongly advised. In case of losing tliat moral
contention, technical and economical developments would be fatal for humanity and planet
Earth. Global Bioetliics calls for an articulation, between medical and enviromiiental knowledge
branches, that must work on negative moral acts done by present society.

1. THE BIRTH OF BIOETHICS natural environment without concern for

the distant future. The basic ecological
The prefix bio was attached to the word premises in the case against the excessive
ethics when Van Rensselaer Potter began use of technology was stated decades ago
to be concerned about the failure of in Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic-.
traditional system of morality to deal with
the effects of technology upon the natural
world and the future of human species'.
Technology promotes a growth-oriented
V.R. Potter. Bioethics : The Science of Survival, in
profit-making economy that exploits the «Perspectives in Biology and Medicine» 14 ( 1970).
120-15?,.
Tomado de internet, de la revista Global Bioethics. A. Leopold. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford
Vol. 14. N« 4- 2001. University Press. New York 1949. p. 224.
 36 Russo GIOVANNI

Aldo Leopold believed that the human biological knowledge. Today the increases
species is dependent upon the plants and are occurring so quickly that the impact
animals that in turn depend upon the soil, on moral traditions cannot be easily
water and air in the natural environment. assessed. One of the virtues implicit in
And he believed that the natural bioethics is self-restraint, a virtue difficult
environment could not be maintained if to practice in a corporate structure that
the human population increased its aims at short term profit. The application
number indefinitely. Leopold's recog- of biotechnology to agriculture will
nition that the human species is part of, undoubtedly accomplish miracles, yet
and dependent upon, the natural world is must be pursued with caution. Before
a basis for a normative universal morality shifting to a monoculture of some
that according Potter might be called high-producing, we should make sure that
bioethics. It is now a moral issue to the diversity of the gene pool in the wild
question the exercise of technological plants is not lost. If biotechnology
power for human increase without accelerates the separation of the human
restraint. The health of the human species species from the agricultural enterprise
has become defined not in terms of and fosters increasing urbanisation, the
numbers, but in terms of harmoriy with ability of the species to survive will become
the natural environment on a continuing more and more fragile. The bioethical rule
basis. Quality of life, with health a basic should be to exercise restraint and proceed
requirement, is a moral issue'. Bioethics with caution.
has moved beyond the morality of indivi-
dual behaviour to the morality of groups, The concept of bioethics that ethics cannot
especially corporations, churches, be separated from biological facts is
governments, political parties, and special especially needed in the areas of bio-
interests in relation to natural world. While technology, and genetic engineering.
theflowof thought had been from biology Bioethics is a system of morality that
and ecology across a disciplinary chasm covers not orily human relationships to
into ethics, a counterflow was almost human beings, but also human rela-
immediately let loose when firmly tionships to the natural living world, now
established ethicist in departments of being dominated by the human species as
philosophy used «bioethics» to describe never species as before.
their applications of traditional ethics to
the problems engendered by medical Bioethics is an evolving system of morality
terminology and genetic engineering*. that demands the exercise of humility,
responsibility, and competence^. It has
According to Potter, bioethics can be been suggested that what bioethics calls
defined as the reexamination of moral for «is neither optimism nor pessimism,
traditions in the light of increasing but an informed realism that includes
humility: a humility in which we admit that
3 V.R.Potter.Bioelhics.BridgelolheFulure, Prentice-
Hall. Englewood Cliffs 1971. 5 V.R. Potter. Humility with Responsibility - A
4 G. Russo - V.R. Potter. L'idea originaria di Bioethic for Oncologists: Presidential Address, in
15 bioética, in «ltinerarium» 2 (1994) 2. pp. 11-25. «Cancer Research» 35 (1975). Sept.. pp. 2297-336.
 POTTER'S PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIOETHICS. A N EXAMINATION AND SURVEY 37

not one of us knows how society should for bioethics is to seek biological agree-
proceed, a humility that causes us to listen ments at the international level.
in order to use the though of others. We
need humility that is not merely a mask As we approach the new Century, accor-
for incompetence but rather is willing to ding to Potter we become increasingly
lay its measure of competence on the line, aware of the dilemma posed by the
willing to step over the disciplinary exponential increase in knowledge without
boundary willing to, criticize and be an increase in the wisdom needed to
criticized, and wilting to modify a manage it.
cherished personal insight into an effective
working hypothesis or an action policy for «Today we arc begitming to realize that
a group».** somehow we must decide what proportion
of our scientists shall be free to pursue pure
science and what proportioti shall be paid
Bioethics, as Potter envision it, would to look for solutions to the problems of
attempt to generate wisdom, the knowledge society. Surely the search for wisdom cannot
of how to use knowledge for social good be undertaken without sotne agreement as
from a realistic knowledge of man's to goals and common values, which many
people seem to feel is an area outside the
biological nature and of the biological realm of science, and, indeed, to constitute
world'. A realistic knowledge of man is a metaphysics, philosophy, or religion. Doubt
knowledge that includes his role as an has arisen as to whether or not we can
adaptive control system with built-in error achieve a common set of values. We have
tendencies. This mechanistic view, which elsewhere referred to the new wisdom that
respects the delicate balance of Nature as a
combines reductionist and holistic kind of humility that is equivalent to the
elements, would be totally incapable of ancient adtnonition «The Fear of the Loid
generating wisdom unless supplemented is the beginning of wisdom» (Psaltns
with both a humanistic and an ecological 111:10), but neither tlie original version nor
outlook. The concepts and viewpoints the paraphrasing seetns accepted at this
time. In seeking to advance a common value
expressed by Potter may be examined in system for the future in which the test ol
relation to the books by Teilhard de wisdom is survival and improvement, we
Chardin. Although he differs in approach, might do well to turn to hnmanuel Kant
his aim is the same: to combine the science (1724-1804) and his Prolegomena to Any
of biology with a preservation of human Future Metaphysics and other excerpts
reprinted by Smith and Grene. Kant was
values and to strive to make man's future really concerned with wisdom, and his
come up to what it could conceivably be*. words make this quite clear. He fought a
The present world is dominated by military campaign for wisdom as a science and lost,
policy and by an overemphasis on which seems a pity; but time and the march
production of material goods. Neither of of events seems to force us to ask the 9
question again, «What is Wisdom?» in a
is
these enterprises have given any thought scientific context [...]. Kant points out that
to the basic facts of biology. An urgent task men labor under opposing forces of duty
and reason en the one hand and the
satisfaction of those needs and inclinations
6 V.R. Potter. Humility with Responsibility, p. 2297.
comprehended under the name of happiness
7 V.R. Potter. Bioethics: Bridge to the Fulure. chap.
on the other He seemed to have had an
13.
itnplicit recognition of man's longrange
8 Ibidem, chap. 2 and 7. >
38 Rüsso GIOVANNI

needs over many generations without «acceptable» survival. Mere or miserable

explicitly commenting on the issue of survival is not enough and irresponsible
survival».'
survival cannot last.
According to Potter, humanistic biology
may be an appropriate discipline for the a) Mere survival. More survival is a term
organisation of a code of bioethics for used scornfully by people who dislike
survival. talk about survival, mere survival
implies food, shelter and reproductive
maintenance, but no progress beyond
2. ACCEPTABLE SURVIVAL
a more or less steady state. It implies
AND BIOETVIICS
no libraries, no written history, no
cities, and no agriculture for urban
Bioethics was proposed by Potter in 1970 support. Essentially a «hunting and
as science of survival, with careful gathering» society. For many thou-
attention to what is meant by «survival» sands of years the Eskimos on the
and what is ethical activity is pursuing shores of the Arctic Ocean appear to
health care and related concept, «earth- have been archetypal examples of
cam», on a global basis. Survival is easily mere survival. But they had pride and
defined. Survival for an individual is standards of behavior. They had a
postponement of death: survival for a survival bioethic insofar as they had
species is postponement of extinction; learned over many generations what
survival of a civilization is the post- they had to know about their environ-
ponement of an inevitable collapse or ment (the philosophers' «is» concept)
crash, with overwhelming decreases in to- and what they had to do to survive in
tal numbers of people. The question is perpetuity (the «ought» concept). Life
whether a decent civilization could be was not too bad. Now the Eskimos
rebuilt after a crash. The phrase «global have outboard motors and rifles and
survival» does not specify what kind of their future is in doubt. They appear
survival is called for'". to be doing on a small scale what the
rest of the world is doing on a large
Potter suggests five categories, or kinds, of scale. Primitive societies in desert
survival' '. There will now he discussed and lands were also able to survive for
it will be proposed that the term «survival» thousands of years with not too bad a
be understood to mean «sustainable» and life. The discovery of the Yanomama
tribe in the Amazonian rain forest in
9 Ibidem, pp. 184-185. the 1950s and the intensive study of
10 V. R. Potter. Getting to the Year 3000: Can Global them since the 1960s led to an
Bioethics Overcome Evolutions Fatal Flaw?, in appreciation of their culture and has
«Perspectives in Biology and Medicine» 34 (1990)
1. pp. 89-98. highlighted lessons we might learn from
11 V.R. Potter. Bioethics and the Human Prospect, in them. Many primitive societies have
The Culture of Biomedicine: Studies in Sciences and gone from mere survival to miserable
Culture, vol. l.University of Delaware Press. survival, as a result of encroachment
Newark 1984. Idem. Global Bioethics: Building on
the Leopold Legacy. Michigan State University by white settlers. Meanwhile large
Press. East Lansing 1988. chap. 2. segments of industrial societies have
 POTTER'S PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIOETHICS. A N EXAMINATION AND SURVEY 39

gone to irresponsible survival that and acceptable survival. Many people

cannot last. We need to define a have more than any society could
survival that will last and be duplicate and yet have little concern
acceptable, sustainable, realistic and for people who suffer with miserable
global. survival. This cohort continues to
survive from ^neration to generation
h) Miserable survival. Miserable survival
with tittle thought for its miserable
is a state ttiat tends to he identified with
neighbours in the tong term or for the
the ravages of disease or war, and the
toll of malnutrition, starvation, or species in the long term. According to
parasitism. Alt of these disasters occur Potter overpopulation and overcon-
in combinations. Diseases caused by sumption, and the depletion and
parasites afflict more than half the degradation of the biosphere, are
world's people. Even when not examptes of irresponsible survival.
seriously itt, people who have parasitic The dominant culture has been based
disease are chronicatty sick, weaker, on conspicuous consumption that has
less competent, tess productive, and b)een coupled with the exptoitation and
less content than they would be progressive depletion and degradation
otherwise. ITiat is miserable survival. of the natural resource base. It has
Since that occasion the sexually been claimed, though not in so many
transmitted disease known as Aids has words, that this consumption of mate-
burst upon the global scene and has rial goods, fueled by advertising in a
given millions of people miserable throwaway society, is necessary for
survival until they die. employment. The present economic
model provides employment at high
c) Idealistic survival. Peopte cannot agree wages for a privileged few while
on the components of idealistic millions are below the poverty level.
survival, but they can universally agree The dominant culture is irresponsible
en the desirabitity of health and the and not acceptabte. It cannot survive
undesirability of preventable disease. in the long term.
No culture or religion, has ever placed
a premium on, or aspired to, starva- e) Acceptable survival. In proposing
tion, malnutrition, diarrhea, intestinat «acceptable survival», as the goal of
worms, or other parasitic infestations. bioethics two questions arise at the
Clearly, the elimination of these outset acceptable survivat/or whom
scourges is some tiling that aU can agree and acceptable to whom? And what
on as a component of idealistic survivat about another term frequentty
but today we can offer acceptable employed, i.e. sustainable develop-
CD
survival its a proposed goat for ment?
idealistic survivat: global survival in
According to Potter the answer to the first
the form of acceptabte survival that is
question, in the broad sense, is acceptable
world-wide and sustainable. survivat for all the world's people and
d) Irresponsible survival. Irresponsible acceptable to a universal sense of what is
survival is doing anything that runs morally right and good and to what will
>
counter to the concepts of idealistic realistically continue in the long term.

fiHsl
 40 Russo GIOVANNI

Acceptable survival is a long term concept to improvement in the quality of life. Potter
with a moral constraint worldwide htiman take the position that the bioethics as
dignity, human rights, human health. The science of survival must be built on the
dominant world culture at present tends science of biology and enlarged beyond
to be quite irresponsible and not the traditional boundaries to include the
acceptable in terms of global survival. The most essential elements of the social
second question is whether sustainable sciences and the humanities with
development would substitute for emphasis on philosophy in the strict
acceptable survival. It would not, because sense, meaning «love of wisdom». A
sustainable development does not science of survival must be more than
implicitly demand moral constraints. science alone, and Potter therefore
Acceptable survival is based on the proposed the term «bioethics» in order
assumption of moral constraints. to emphasize the two most important
Sustainable development carries two ingredients in achieving the new wisdom
ideas: «sustainable» is widely understood that is so «desperately needed»'':
to mean economically sustainable. And biological knowledge and human values.
«development» implies growth, i.e. In this age of specialization we seem to
increase in numbers of successful have lost contact with the daily reminders
enterprise and increases in net worth far that must have driven homo the truth to
increasing numbers of people. Sustainable our ancestors: man cannot live without
development is an anthropocentric term: harvesting plants or killing animals. If
the human species is the focus with no clear plants wither and die and animals fail to
balance between present and future'^. reproduce, man will sicken and die and
fail to maintain his kind.
Potter's acceptable survival is enlightened
anthropocentrism: it calls for control of As individuals we cannot afford to leave
human fertility and sees the human species our destiny in the hands of scientists,
in the context of the total biosphere. If the engineers, technologists, and politicians
human species is to survive it needs to pre- who have forgotten or who never knew
serve the natural environment in tracts lar- these simple truths. In our modern world
go enough to permit species diversity. we have botanists who study plants and
Mankind is urgently in need of new wisdom zoologists who study animals, but most of
that will provide the «knowledge of how them are specialists who do not deal with
to use knowledge» for man's survival and the ramifications of their limited
for improvement in the quality of life. This knowledge. Today we need biologists who
concept of wisdom as a guide for action respect the fragile web of life and who can
-the knowledge of how to use knowledge broaden their knowledge to include the
for the social good- might be called nature of man and his relation to the
science ofsurvival, surely the prerequisite biological and physical worlds. We need
biologists who can tell us what we can and

g 12 V.R.Potter-L.Potter.GlobalBioethicsrConverling
P Sustainable Development to Global Survival, in
I «Medicine and Global Survival» 2 (1995) 3. pp. 185- 13 G. Russo - V. R. Potter. L'idea originaria di
15 191. bioética, pp. 21-22.
 POTTER'S,PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIOETHICS. A N EXAMINATION AND SURVEY
41

must do to survive and what we cannot and into «our very selves» by the process of
must not do if we hope to maintain and natural selection. In other words the fatal
improve the quality of life'-*. flaw is part of the process «that made us
what we are» and hence the primary basis
for the problems of the future. The vision
3. FROM BIOETHICS TO GLOBAL of global bioethics is to further the
BIOETHICS development of a morality that will
attempt to respond to the concerns of many
The fate of the world according to Potter scientists who hope that their speciality will
rests on the integration, preservation, and somehow lead to better understanding of
extension of the knowledge that is the world-wide crisis humanity faces. It is
possessed by a relatively small number of questionable for Potter whether we now
men who are only just beginning to realise have either the understanding or the mo-
how inadequate their strength, how ral stature that is needed.
enormous the task. What is needed is a
new discipline, bioethics, to provide «The goal of global bioethics, as I see it, is
models of life styles for people who can to attempt to overcotne evolutioti's fatal
communicate with each other and propose tlaw by developing a motality that places
and explain the new public policies that long-raiige goals othumati survival ahead ot"
short-temi ecotiotnic gains that biological
could provide a «bridge to the future». The and cultural evolution have tnade pre-
new discipline will be forged in the heat of emptive [..]. Global bioethics, according to
today's crisis problems, all of which tTiy vision, calls tor tnoral responses based
require some kind of a mix between basic on continually developitig the best possible
biology, social sciences, and the itnderstandiiig of tlie world and hiuiiankind's
place in it. As ati evolving tnorality, global
humanities. From many uninformed bioethics must proceed with humility,
quarters we now hear demands far a responsibility, and competence explicitly
moratorium on science, when what we directed toward the long-range survival of
need is more and better science. We need the human species, atid coupled with a
to combine biology with humanistic genuine cotnpassioti for present populations
in terms of the protection of human
knowledge from diverse sources and forge dignity»'^.
a science of survival that will be able to set
a system of priorities''. Because of the fatalflaw.Potter demands
forcefully that we need to start action in
Potter suggests that evolution's fatal flaw, the areas where knowledge is already
defined roughly as the biological available, and we need to reorient our
predilection for short-term gain, is built research effort to get the necessary .3
knowledge if it is not available. The age-
I
old questions about the nature of man and
14 V. R. Potter. Bioética globale: la mia filosofía, in
G. Russo (ed.). Bilancio di venticinque anni di
his relation to the world become
bioética. Un rapporto dai pionieri. Elle Di Ci. increasingly important as we approach the
Leumann-Torinp 1997. pp. 69-82. V.R Potter. remaining three decades in this century,
Humility with Responsibility, pp. 2304-2305.
when political decisions made in ignorance
15 V. R. Potter. Biotechnology: An Overview and
Evaluation, in «Biotechnology and Ethics».
November 1987. pp. 556-576. 16 V. R. Potter. Getting to the year .3000. pp. 90-91.
 42 Russo GIOVANNI

of biological knowledge, or in defiance of so that the formula for success is conti-

it, may jeopardize man's future and indeed nually being rewritten. When sufficient
the future of earth's biological resources alterations in the genome have accumu-
for human needs. As individuals we speak lated and survived, a new «species»
of the «instinct for survival», but the sum arises.
total of all our individual instincts for
survival is not enough to guarantee the Potter quotes Theodosius Dobzhansky
survival of the human race in a form that who, in contemplating the fact of almost
any or us would willingly accept. inevitable species extinction, admirably
articulated the view of evolutionists of the
An instinct for survival is not enough. We time when he wondered whether extinction
must develop the science of survival, and is something built into the evolutionary
it must start with a new kind of ethics: process'''. He commented that most
bioethics. The new ethics might be called biological species of the past have become
interdisciplinary ethics, defining inter- extinct, without issue, and yet their
disciplinary in a special way to include evolution was controlled by natural
both the sciences and the humanities. This selection. This is because selection
term is rejected, however, because the promotes what is immediately useful, oven
meaning is not self-evident. As a discipli- if the change may be fatal in the long run.
ne, traditional biology has reached the A striking example of the proposition is
stage where it can be taught in terms of the evolution of the giant panda, a native
principles, recognising that it is of China, to a diet consisting exclusively
impossible for any individual to become of bamboo, over a period of some millions
familiar with all the available examples of years. When a whole bamboo forest
that illustrate the principles. Bioethics can temporarily disappears, many giant pan-
serve no useful ends if it is to be merely a das have starved to death, and the pandas
watered-down version of contemporary are now considered an endangered species.
biology. Thus, not all extinctions can be attributed
to cataclysmic changes in the environment,
It is generally understood that the goal, and the short-range adaptive phenomena
or, if one prefers, the result of evolution deserve to be called the «fatal flaw» in
is to make the members of a species better evolution, as Potter have suggested in the
and better adapted to their ambient entire book Global bioethics.
environ-ment. Successful reproduction of
their kind and species survival have been It is Potter's thesis that in pursuing perfect
considered the obvious outcome. The adaptation the evolutionary process has
mechanism, of course, is the generation built into each member of the human
of diversity through mutation and recom- species an instinct for short-term gains so
bination, which in turn leads to many strong that no prescient individual.
unsuccessful genomes for each successful
adaptation within the boundaries of the
17 T. Dobzhansky. The Biological Basis of Human
genome that defines the species. Freedom. Columbia University Press. New York
Meanwhile, the biotic environment is 1956: Idem. Evolution at Work, in «Science» 127
being altered by the products of diversity (1958). pp. 1091-1098.
15
 POTTER'S PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIOETHICS. A N EXAMINATION AND SURVEY 43

committee, religion, or private organi- improvement of living conditions for the

sation has so far been able to conceive or human race. Environmental ethics needs
effect a cultural milieu that could to accept the goal of health for the human
adequately balance the short-term instincts species as part of health for the biosphere.
of human individuals with the long-range Global Bioethics calls far environmental
needs of the species. The goal of global ethics and medical ethics to look at each
bioethics is to recruit «true believers» who others' problems, along with the others'
can see the need far future as well as insights, to achieve the goal. Environmen-
currently oriented cultural change, and tal ethics should be part of the mission of
who can influence governments, locally professional public health officers as much
and globally, to achieve adequate as anyone for it is they whose work crosses
protection of human dignity, and the international borders in both environ-
preservation and restoration of the natu- mental and medical domains".
ral environment. These are the minimal
requirements for what Potter have The cross-currents between medical
described as «acceptable» survival, in bioethics and environmental bioethics can
contrast to more or miserable survival. best be understood if we realise that they
The goal of acceptable survival is what are two streams of conflicting values
university graduates should be promoting flowing in a river of reality. In each case a
but are not because our culture has been set of quality values is challenging a se t of
unable to overcome the fatal flaw. The sanctity values, where the word sanctity
malignant expansion of the «most implies avalué that cannot be challenged.
perfectly adapted species» may in the long In both the medical and the environmental
run foil any effort to overcome the fatal conflicts of interest we embrace a wealth
flaw"«. of professional information and ethical
opinion in the words quality and sanctity.
The contemporary scene since Potter's The vision of global bioethics calls for an
introduction of the word bioethics have ethic of responsibility for long-term
never deviated from an emphasis on long- acceptable survival based on health care
term «acceptable» survival of the human and earth care world-wide. 'ITie conflicts
species. His bioethics has always been of interest and the failures to reach
defined as an attempt to combine consensus are truly colossaP.
biological science and knowledge from the
humanities, stressing that ethics cannot be
separated from biological facts. Global
Bioethics maintained that medical ethics
and environmental ethics should not be m
separated from each other. Only by a 19 V. R. Potter. Bringing the Gap Between Medical
philosophy of individual health for all the Ethies and Environmental Ethics, in «Global
world's people and not far just a chosen Bioethics» 6 (1993) 3. pp. 161-164.
few can we achieve the goal of survival and 20 K. Bayertz. Introduction: Moral Consensus as a
Social and Philosophical Problem, in The Concept
of Moral Consensus. The Case of Technological
Inter\'entions in Human Reproduction. Kluwer. >
0)
18 V. R. Potter. Getting to the year 3000. pp. 96-97. Dordrecht 1994. cc
44 I Russo GIOVANNI

In the development of global bioethics the ciplinary competence, 4) intercultural

idea of bioethics moved from a broad competence, and 5) compassion, but
concept of integration of biology and the always with acceptable long-term survival
humanities to a narrower integration of of the human species in a world-wide civil
medical and environmental bioethics. society as the goat^'.
Then it became apparent that medical and
environmental ethics had proceeded down Global bioethics is proposed as an idea
separate paths. Global bioethics was whose time has come. The concept catls
proposed as an attempt to integrate the for a coalition for all the efforts to bring
medical and environmental branches. In science, religion, the humanities, govern-
Potter's vision the evolution of bioethics ments, business, industry and people
as a discipline moved from humility, together in interdisciplinary groups that
responsibility, and competence to can agree on the five cardinal virtues and a
encompass five cardinal virtues: 1) goat that goes beyond «stewardship» to
humility, 2) responsibility, 3) interdis- embrace «acceptable survival».

21 V.R. Potter. Global bioethics: Buildings a Leopold

Legacy', pp. 57-70: Idem. Humility with Respon-
sibility. A bioethic for Oncologists: Presidential
Address in «Cancer Resarch». S.*;. sept., p. 2301.

Acceptable survival, tn proposing «acceptabte stirVival», as tlie goal of bioethics two questiotis
ari.se at the outset acceptable survival for whom and acceptable lo vvhotn? And what about
aiiotlier term trequently employed, i.e. sustainable devetop-ment?

According to Potter the answer to the tlrst question, in the broad sense, is acceptabte survival
for atl the world s people aiid acceptable to a universal sense of what is morally riglit atid good
and to what witl reatisticalty continue in the long term. Acceptable survival is a tong term
concept with a moral constraint wortdwide human dignity-, human rights, human healtli. Tlie
dominant world culture at present tends to be quite irresponsible and not acceptabte in temis of
"lobal SLU"vival. Ru.sso GIOVA.NM