[Bioethics: an epistemological approach].

The present paper reviews the history of the birth of bioethics in the USA at the beginning of the seventies as an inter-discipline. It points out the horizon where the neologism "bio-ethics" appeared as blend of biology and morals, life and ethics, science and conscience, fact and value, being and must. It insists on the interdisciplinary nature of this branch of learning and it proposes a classification of the subject matter studied by it. The paper ends with a concise view of the development of bioethics in Argentina, drawing attention to its contribution to the biological sciences and health care.