A comparative analysis of the legislation in the field of bioethics in several Western countries, especially in European Union member states, shows that there is a profound difference both in legislative policies and in the ethical principles enshrined by the laws.
Over the past few years bioethics, as a discipline, has attempted to elaborate individual and collective behavioural codes in several fields, but it has come up against enormous difficulties; it has not even been possible to reach a consensus between different countries on the general principles. An example of this is the recent Convention on Bioethics endorsed by the Council of Europe.
The aim of the essays contained in this book is to highlight the differences between existing regulations in several countries, and to stress how necessary it is to elaborate a legal framework that could be shared by the widest range of national legislations. For there is no denying that technological advances in the fields of both biology and medicine, as well as progress in surgical treatments, mean that jurists the world over are faced with a common scientific reality. The task of the jurist must therefore be to engage in a comparative analysis so as to overcome the differences in national legislations.