NEW ETHICAL ISSUES FOR ALL
RELIGIONS AND IDEOLOGIES
http://ghandchi.com/13-New_Ethical_Issues.htm
The new developments of
medicine and various sciences (biotechnology, cryogenics, nanotechnology, ++)
have brought many new ethical issues that are not easy to deal with by
different religions and ideologies. Many religious and secular thinkers are
trying to respond to these issues within their own frame of thought and most of
the time, there are many stands, even opposing stands, among the followers of
the same religion, faith, or ideology. For example there are Christians who
strongly promote birth control pills and there are also Christians who think it
is a sin to use those pills. Let me list some of these issues:
1. EUTHANASIA- THIS IS AN
ISSUE RELATED TO DEATH- The right to
take your life, when you are in a strong pain, or in a vegetable state of life,
because of a chronic disease or coma.
The question now is what is death?
Is the stopping of brain functions the moral or legal definition of
death? So when is it right to disconnect
the support system of a patient in coma, i.e. to take the life?
2. SEX CHANGE- This was not possible in the past. Actually many
other transplants of organs are also changing the nature. That is using other people’s kidneys, hearts,
etc. Also most of the works of genetics are the same way, for example changing
the sex in the fish to increase production, which is being done in
3. SPERM BANK- Some men donate to a sperm bank. Some women can get
sperm from a sperm bank, for example, when their husband is sterile. In
4. SURROGATE MOTHERS- If a woman has a problem with her reproductive
organs, she can ask another woman to take the sperm of the first woman’s
husband through a medical procedure and become pregnant and upon baby’s
delivery, to give the child to the original parents. In
5. ABORTION- This is not new. But the new thing is the findings
about life before birth. If actually it becomes possible to continue the growth
of the fetus outside the woman’s body even in the early months of pregnancy,
then abortion would no longer be just a woman body’s issue. Because the baby
could still grow outside the woman’s body. So the woman would be able to take
the baby out but would not have the right to discard the fetus, even in the
first month of pregnancy. A real
problem for secular thinkers and supporters of Pro-Choice!
6. METHODS OF BIRTH
CONTROL. Even condoms are banned by
some religions. The above developments
are challenging the old concepts to define where LIFE begins. Where DEATH is. What is natural and what is unnatural in a
HUMAN BODY (is other person’s kidney in my body unnatural?).
***
The above are just a few
issues that are the results of the new possibilities of new achievements of
medicine, science, and technology. The forefront religious and secular thinkers
of all different belief systems are facing these new realities. The ready-made
or hasty answers to these new realities will not help anybody. For example, in the
past it was easy for progressive-minded people to support abortion and condemn
anybody opposing it as backward.
Although, I still think the
woman should have the right to decide what to do with her body, but I think as
far as the baby is concerned, the day the fetus can be raised outside the womb,
I do not think the woman would have the right to discard the fetus. Let me also
say that these issues are so new for me that I am just thinking out loud and I
am far from having made-up my mind on any of them. I just think it is good to
hear the different opinions.
There are so many side-issues
involved in each one of these cases that I have a hard time to have any
definite answer to any of these issues if they come up in my own life. BTW, I
have signed the paper in my drivers license which
allows the donation of my organs, should I die in an accident.
Sam Ghandchi
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