Semantic Network Analysis of Bioethical Discourses: Mapping Anthropocentrism, Responsibility, and Governance

Abstract

This study analyzes the discursive structure of contemporary bioethical debates through semantic network analysis, with a specific focus on the role of anthropocentrism in articulations of responsibility and governance. Drawing on a corpus of academic articles, policy documents, and institutional bioethics texts published between 2000 and 2024, the research empirically maps conceptual associations that organize ethical reasoning. Rather than treating anthropocentrism as a fixed normative position, the study examines it as a semantic hub whose centrality and relational patterns can be systematically assessed. Network metrics such as degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and modularity reveal that anthropocentrism occupies a dominant and mediating position within bioethical discourse, strongly connected to notions of human agency, technological development, and institutional governance, while concepts related to non-human life and ecological integrity remain peripheral. These findings clarify how human-centered assumptions are discursively stabilized across ethical, technological, and governance-oriented domains. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the value of semantic network analysis for enhancing transparency and replicability in discourse-based bioethical research. Substantively, it highlights the structural limits of prevailing bioethical frameworks in addressing long-term ecological and intergenerational concerns within contemporary governance contexts.