Bioethics

Bioethics is a field of study which concerns the relationship between biology, science, medicine and ethics, philosophy and theology. Bioethicists analyze which medical treatments or technological innovations are moral, when treatments may or may not be used, etc.

Issues discussed in bioethics include whether or not any of the following are ever permissible, and if permissible, under what circumstances:

Abortion
Artificial insemination
Donating one's sperm or eggs
Genetic engineering
The obligation of the individual, community, state and nation to provide health care and/or health insurance.
Homosexuality
Human cloning
When to use, and when to withold, life-support
When to use, and when to withold, artificial hydration and artificial nutrition
How to treat infertility
Organ transplants and Organ donation
Stem-cell cloning
Suicide, assisted suicide and euthanasia
The use of surrogate mothers
Use of nanotechnology and cybernetics within humans
The advent of artificial wombs
The treatment of non-human animals

Bioethics may be a purely secular concern; in such cases bioethicists focus on using philosophy to help analyze said concerns. A large number of Jewish and Christian religious scholars have become involved in the field, and have developed rules and guidelines on how to deal with these issues from within the viewpoint of their respective faiths.

A smaller number of religious scholars from other religions have recently become involved in this field as well. Islamic clerics have begun to write on this topic. Muslim bioethicists include Abdulaziz Sachedina, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. There has been some criticism by liberal Muslims that only the more religiously conservative voices in Islam are being heard on this issue.

External links

References (general)

Thomas John. Where Religious and Secular Ethics Meet in Humane Health Care International, Vol. 12, No. 1, January 1996.
Orr, Robert D. and Leigh B. Genesen. Requests for inappropriate treatment based on religious beliefs in Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol. 23, 1997. pp. 142-147.
Sloan, R.P., E. Bagiella and T. Powlell. Religion, spirituality, and medicine, The Lancet, 1999, 353(9153): 1-7.

Muslim bioethics

Al Khayat MH. Health and Islamic behaviour. In: El Gindy AR, editor. Health policy, ethics and human values: Islamic perspective Kuwait: Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences; 1995. p. 447-50.
Ebrahim, Abul Fadl Mohsin Abortion, Birth Control and Surrogate Parenting. An Islamic Perspective Indianapolis, 1989
Esposito, John. Ed. Surrogate Motherhood in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
An unholy alliance: Muslims have diverse views on scientific ethics, yet only the conservatives are heard. And a Muslim-Vatican deal is not helping. Ehsan Masood, New Scientist Vol 180 issue 2419 - 01 November 2003

Jewish Bioethics

Bleich, J. David. 1981. Judaism and Healing. New York: Ktav
Dorff, Elliot N. 1998. Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society
Feldman DM. Marital relations, birth control, and abortion in Jewish law. New York: Schocken Books; 1974
Freedman B. Duty and healing: foundations of a Jewish bioethic. New York: Routledge; 1999
Jakobovits I. Jewish medical ethics. New York: Bloch Publishing; 1959
Life & Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical Ethics, Ed. Aaron L. Mackler, JTS, 2000
Maibaum M. A "progressive" Jewish medical ethics: notes for an agenda. Journal of Reform Judaism 1986;33(3):27-33.
Rosner, Fred Modern medicine and Jewish ethics New York: Yeshiva University Press; 1986
Conservative Judaism Vol. 54(3), Spring 2002 (Contains a set of six articles on bioethics)
Zohar, Noam J. 1997. Alternatives in Jewish Bioethics. Albany: State University of New York Press

Christian bioethics

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