Bioethics as bios ethikos.
Medicine, health care, and philosophy May 30, 2026 Luis De Miranda
The article redefines bioethics as 'bios ethikos'—ethical reflection on what makes forms of life meaningful and inhabitable—by analyzing the ancient distinction between zoē (biological life as organic functioning) and bios (a human life shaped by meaning and values). It introduces the 'existential remainder' to capture ethically significant aspects of lived existence that institutional deliberation often overlooks. A heuristic formula, T = PEWS + C, is proposed: ethical thinking (T) distributes across four domains—Person, Earth, Work, and Society (PEWS)—plus a creative openness (C) that resists full codification. Bioethics thus becomes not merely regulation of life but reflection on whether governance sustains conditions for a meaningfully lived life.