In 1926, the German pastor Fritz Jahr in Halle coined the term `Bioethik' and defined a `Bio-Ethical Imperative: Respect every living being as an end in itself and treat it, if possible, as such'. Bioethics since then has grown from medical ethics and social and political strategies to multidisciplinary and integrated disciplines of research and consulting. In 2020, reflecting and mediating the interactive and integrated ecosystems and interactive networks in biology, society, business, technology and communication, I submit a wider integrated biocultural, corporate and political `Bio-Cultural Imperative: Support direct human inter-action and common-sense as an end in itself and use hardware and software tools only in stabilizing healthy and happy cultures in the bodies of ecologies, corporations and politics'.
In 1969 a human walked on the moon, in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell down, in 2001 the World Trade Center in New York fell down, in 2020 a global Corona pandemic fell down on people and communities. Biological, political and corporate bodies change, and we change with them and in them: `tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis'.
(Hans Martin Sass, preface)
Hans-Martin Sass (* 1935 in Hagen /Germany) now lives in Reston, Virginia. He holds faculty positions in philosophy and bioethics at Ruhr University, Bochum, FRG (since 1966), and Georgetown University, Washington DC (since 1980); Honorary Professor at Renmin University (1985) and Peking Union Medical College (2001) in Beijing PRC. 100+ separate publications, 250+ journal articles, 300+ invited lectures.
