Even if the term bioethics is used all over
the world, its meanings are multiple and different,
especially between American and European countries, depending
on local cultural and medical contexts. These differences
concern the issues discussed or the institutional form
bioethics takes. In France, bioethics was used from the
end of the 1970s and focused on research ethics and issues
at the beginning of life. At the national level, a permanent
commission, the “national consultative ethics committee
on life sciences and health” (Comité Consultatif
National d'Ethique, CCNE) was created by President
François Mitterrand in 1983. Its recommendations
dealt essentially with procreative medicine and biomedical
research ethics.