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BIOETHICS, Should approach be Optimistic or Pessimistic?

Presented by:
Abdul Mateen Rajput
mateenraj@hotmail.com

What is BIO-ETHICS?

Bioethics is recently emerged science which can be defined by different aspects:
Doctors consider it a matter of clinical decision;
Sociologists, a social fact;
Politicians, a democratic process;
Lawyers, a legal development; and
Biologists, as biologically determined.
Philosophy claims it, because it is essentially ethics: ‘the ethics that concerns our relations to the biosphere.

Generally,

Bioethics is a system of moral principles, by which human actions and proposals may be judged good or bad, right or wrong.

OR
A set of rules governing the conduct of a particular class of human action.

Bio-ethics is essentially ethics, and it is extracted from the Greek ethos, means ‘what is usually done’, or ‘what is done according to custom’. Therefore ethics can be defined as ‘what we consider appropriate to do’.

According to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, Ethics is the pursuit of a “final good” or “supreme good”. The final good is often interpreted as happiness.
On the contrary, Albert Einstein said that “To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle”.

Bio-ethics divides according to the proximity of the biosphere, which is either in, shared with or around the person.

1. The biosphere is, In a person’s body:
Problems relating to health and illness, sexuality and reproduction, life and death pertain to medical ethics.

2. The biosphere is, Shared with the person:
Problems in relation to food and food-safety pertain to consumer ethics, whereas problems relating to animals pertain to anima ethics.

3. The biosphere is, Around us as our general habitat:
Problems relating to pollution, biodiversity, climatic changes, population growth and -decline pertain to environmenta ethics.

FOUNDATION PILLARS OF BIOETHICS:

RESPECT, for people’s rights.

BENEFICENCE, Benefits must be proportionate to risks.

JUSTICE, The even distribution of benefits and risks throughout society.

NONMALEFICENCE, Do-no-harm, to all creatures until or unless it is necessary to do so.

BIOETHICISTS’ ARGUMENTS AGAINST BIOTECHNOLOGY: (by Lori Zoloth, San Francisco University)

DNA, as the really real self.

Pess: DNA is basically what defines us. It is what makes us human.
Optim: Life of the suffered is important rather than the DNA realization.

Nature is fixed.

Pess: Every species has its boundaries; if one crosses it destruction of others occur.
Optim: Nature has given us raw material and we are maximizing their usage.

Nature is normative.

Pess: Nature is self correcting in order, rules and laws are good.
Optim: Technology is always for nature’s most important entity, HUMAN.

Suffering is what defines the human condition.

Pess: Suffering tells us our limitation and it is great teacher of needs.
Optim: Nobody wants to suffer.

Slopes are slippery.

Slippery slopes means: if we perform some action, we will find it easier to perform another.

Pess: Dual-use is inevitable; evil people can change great good into weapons.
Optim: We can’t stop science.

MISTAKES ARE INEVITABLE:

Pess: Blunder could make a disaster.
Optim: This is applied on all fields of life, so should we stop working?

THE MARKETPLACE WILL DISTORT SCIENCE:

Pess: Biotech companies are profit driven not need driven.
Optim: Profit is the reward from the people to those who are right.

RESEARCHERS’ ARGUMENTS AGAINST BIOETHICS:

BIOETHICAL LAWS:

Pess: Laws are obstacles for the progress. There shouldn’t be any law in science!!!
Pess: If we think that there should be no laws for science then why laws for humanities, arts, and economic backbone Commerce, Consider if there would be no law then there will be one law, Power law, like in jungle.
Optim: Law defines me what to do and what not to do, how to be and how not to be. Laws guide me in right direction.

ROLE OF BIOETHICS IN SOCIETY:

Pess: It never gives a straight forward solution, always criticizes whatever going on.
Optim: It gives several choices for the solution and help society to make critical analysis of multi-dimensional problems.

BIOETHICS, THINKING SMALL AND MISSING BIG PICTURE:

Pess: It focuses on small picture of stem cell research and deformed babies while missing the big picture of poverty in African countries where millions of deserted children are far from hope of happy living.

Optim: It concentrates to help research problems associated with human dignity.

BIOETHICAL ISSUES

STEM CELL THERAPY:

The process of injecting stem cells into an organism in the hopes that the stem cells will differentiate into same type of cells as the damaged cells, and replace them.

Pess: Embryos rights are equal to humans.

Optim: It can reduce suffering and enhancing happiness. 1/3 of diseases can be helped by stem cell research (Perry 2000).

HUMAN CLONING:

Pess: A technique for making identical genetic copies.

Optim: Clones aren’t real copies as their pre- and post- natal experiences/environment would produce a different person. E.g. clone of Aishwariya can’t be Aishwariya.
Optim: Reproductive Liberty, state has no role to play in personal matters i.e. reproduction, it is violation of human rights.
Optim: It should be allowed for infertility treatment.

Pess: Cloning is example of industrialization of reproduction. Due to cloning human embryos will become commodities to be sold and bought. One doesn’t have to believe that embryos are person.
Pess: Cloning degrade human life dignity.
Pess: For infertility treatment, there is a slippery slope. Why they want 100% genetically identical children, why not they accept egg donation or sperm donation or adoption?

FARM ANIMALS’ WELL BEING:

Optim: Farmers serve people by providing better products at lowest cost.
Pess: Due to recombinant technology cow is not considered as animal and treated as Milking Machine. Inject hormone and get more product.
Pess: To maximize profit, stressed conditions are kept in farms.
Pess: Blind hens are less problematic thus GM blind hens in Canada to avoid feather pecking.

ANIMALS, AS MEDICAL MODEL:

Optim: According to most of the religions, creatures are made to serve Humans.
Optim: Best alternatives of humans to gain medical knowledge.
Pess: Do animals feel pain? Do they think? What are the criteria to kill an animal for experiment? Genetic Code difference/resemblance or Intelligence.
Pess: If genetic code, then some chimpanzee has 99% identical DNA sequence as ours. Great Ape project, a movement in 1993, for equal rights for Chimpanzee, Gorillas and other higher primates.
Pess: If Intelligent, then can we execute a mad man for experiment?

GENETIC ENGINEERING:

Pess: Playing God and interfering in Nature.
Optim: God wants you to be sick then why you take drugs? Constructing a house is also interference in Nature.

BIOETHICAL DECISION MAKING STORY

Tom Steals the Drug: A woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. The drug was expensive. The sick woman's husband, Tom, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he couldn’t get the required amount. So Tom got desperate and broke into the drug store to steal the drug for his wife.

Should Tom break into the drug store to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

Decision #1(obedience):
Tom should not steal the medicine, because he will consequently be put in prison.

Decision #2(self-interest):
Tom should steal the medicine, because he will be much happier if he saves his wife, even if he will have to serve a prison sentence.

Decision #3(conformity):
Tom should steal the medicine, because his wife expects it.

Decision #4(law-and-order):
Tom should not steal the medicine, because the law prohibits stealing.

Decision #5(human rights):
Tom should steal the medicine, because everyone has a right to live, regardless of the law.

Or: Tom should not steal the medicine, because the scientist has a right to fair compensation.

Decision #6(universal human ethics):
Tom should steal the medicine, because saving a human life is a more fundamental value than the property rights of another person.

Or: Tom should not steal the medicine, because that violates the golden rule of honesty and respect.

CONCLUSION:
There is no hard and fast rule in Bioethics, as we have seen in the story above that the decision taken could be following one and violating other principles of bioethics so it depends upon the situations.

Decision making is very critical measure for most of the Bioethicists, and mostly can’t able to give the justification of the decision in all aspects.

So, we can’t say that Optimism is good or Passivism is bad all the time as it may work otherwise according to scenario.

References:

Books & Newsletters:

“Key issues in Bioethics”, by Michael J. Martin.

“Ethical Biotechnology”, by Maina Kern.

ASBH Exchange, Published by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities

Bioethics Links, SIUT, Karachi.

Ivy Journal of ethics, A publication of bioethics society of Cornell.

Websites:

http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=2508
http://eubios.info/ccib.htm
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects
http://bioethicsdiscussion.blogspot.com/2006/07/bioethics-thinki...
http://www.greatapeproject.org
http://www.rcsi.ie/
http://www.asbh.org/
http://www.siut.org/bioethics
http://www.rso.cornell.edu/bsc/