Rethinking with Onora O’Neill the Kantian Concept of Autonomy in Biolaw

The concept of autonomy plays a significant role in Bioethics as well as in Biolaw, the Kantian conception of autonomy being an unavoidable element in the debate. Some of the most relevant contributions in this discussion stem from Onora O’Neill’s work. Prof. O’Neill promotes an anti-individualist interpretation of autonomy and, in order to increase its ethical efficiency, suggests reconsidering the meaning of autonomy as closely linked to trust. This chapter tries to show how intertwined information, autonomy and trust are at a time when medical technologies and care need to be interpreted and disclosed in order to be properly understood.