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The advance of biomedical science is raising fundamental questions about the definition of what it is to be human. Theologians and health care professionals must work together in a communal defense of the Church's profound teachings about the holiness and sacramentality of bodied existence and must relate this teaching to current reproductive technologies.
In current ethics debates, the protection of animals and the environment are central themes. In this context, reference is made to "ethics of responsibility". In the reality of scientific life and the conduct of science, "ethics of responsibility" have only had a modest impact. Reflection based on the history of thought may explain this finding. Upon abolishing God, man has redirected an initially religious love and devotion toward himself. The postulate of unfettered dominion over the Earth has become the supreme principle. "Theoria" in the sense of its original meaning, that is a celebratory admiration for sacred Nature, is incomprehensible to modern man. Nature has been stripped of its sanctity and transformed into something to be exploited for its human utility. Consequently, today the credo applies that to interpret the freedom of science according to ethical principles is utterly untenable. The author pleads for reconsideration.
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Many mental health professionals look with suspicion upon religious involvement. This may be due to inadequate characterizations of religion or to the profound difference in religious involvement among professionals and nonprofessionals. These differences are examined and a theory of human nature is sketched which makes a place for both science and religion. Admittedly, religion frequently plays a role in psychopathology. This is not surprising, however, since religion as part of psychic life can be distorted. The common forms of such distortion are described and suggestions for management are given. Is there such a thing as "healthy" religion? Attempts to answer this question frequently reflect a bias toward the goals of contemporary psychotherapy--goals which may conflict with deeply held religious convictions. Therapist and client ought to explicitly recognize this potential for conflict before therapy continues.
Can the quest for certainty ever succeed? The focus in this paper is on psychoanalytic considerations about certainty and on the issue of certainty within psychoanalytic theory and practice. The relation of certainty to truth, knowledge, and belief is discussed. The universal quest for certainty and the efforts to achieve it are examined; the uncertainties of science, including psychoanalysis, are emphasized.
Recent proposals to join spirituality and medicine are facile and ill defined. The notion that physicians have the time or training to make assessments and recommendations about spirituality is misguided. Whenever a physician demonstrates personal caring for a patient, the healing process is likely enhanced, and in that sense, physicians often promote the spirituality of the patient. However, recent proposals to extend the physician's task to that of assessing religion and directing the patient toward approved forms of spirituality are inappropriate. The languages of religion and science are radically different. The cultural body-mind split will not be solved by such simplistic solutions as having physicians endorse spirituality, which will result only in denigration of both medicine and religion. Physicians are encouraged to rely on clinically trained ministers for assistance in understanding the patient's state of mind or spirit and its possible effects on the course of illness and health.
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Biotechnology is an increasingly visible and important item on the national science policy agenda. With growing corporate and governmental funding, basic research in recombinant DNA and related technologies is expanding rapidly. In a parallel and related process, new agricultural, medical, and other applications are being developed and a growing list of genetically-engineered products is ready for field testing and market distribution. In the months and years ahead, the flow of genetically-engineered products into the marketplace and the media coverage related to those new products will increase the public's awareness of biotechnology. In addition, it is possible that some public policy debate will occur over the issue of field testing new genetically-engineered materials. Media coverage of this type of controversy will also heighten awareness and influence the aggregate level of public awareness of biotechnology. The prospect of a public debate or controversy over any biotechnology issue illustrates a fundamental problem in the formulation of science policy within a democratic political system. The processes and techniques involved in genetic engineering and complex and require some level of scientific background knowledge. A 1979 study found that only seven per cent of American adults met a minimal definition of scientific literacy. It is clear that the current levels of public awareness and knowledge about biotechnology will not allow a public policy debate similar to those associated with controversies involving Social Security or gasoline prices. How, then, does a democratic society establish public policies on advanced technical issues like biotechnology? This report will outline a model of policy formulation for specialized issues and describe the results of a national study of relevant policy leaders concerning biotechnology. To understand the formulation of public policy toward biotechnology, it is necessary to focus on the role of the policy leaders in a stratified model. In general, when there is agreement on a given policy between the decision-makers and the policy leaders, the policy is implemented and there is no wider involvement in the policy formulation process. A large number of science and technology policy issues have been handled in this manner in the decades since the Second World War and it is likely that most science policy matters will continue to be resolved directly between policy leaders and decision-makers. Looking at the general science policy formulation process, it is clear that policy leaders are an important component.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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The question of what, if anything, Christian theology as theology might contribute to ethical debates about appropriate uses of medical genetics has often been ignored. The answer is complex, and the author argues it is best characterized by an explanation of the analogous aspirations of the two: both have as their goal the perfection of the human being, both assert that the present disposition of the human body is on a fundamental level more often than not other than it ought to be, and both aspire to transform the present state of the body toward a future state in which present imperfections no longer exist. Given these analogous concerns, it would seem that one of the primary moral contributions that Christianity can make to debates about medical genetics is to ask whether and to what extent the Christian vision of embodied human perfection is compatible with the vision of perfection offered by the sciences pertaining to medical genetics. The author pursues a discussion of this analogy and its implications in this essay.
The paper discusses the epistemological question of pain and the way this concept forms part of scientific knowledge. The first part gives a rapid overview of the main aspects of modern scientific knowledge. In earlier times Bacon, Galileo and Descartes felt that the new form of knowledge could head to a knowledge of truth and certainty. Today, these ideals have proved unattainable and science only takes the form of well founded, rigorous and objective knowledge. Moreover, the objectivity of science is based on intersubjectivity. The second part of the paper examines pain and underlines that it is a subjective phenomenon which cannot be ascertained by the doctor in the same way as commonplace anatomic and physiological phenomena. Our scientific knowledge of pain is based on operations for which it is possible to achieve an intersubjective knowledge: these operations constitute the protocol criteria on which it is possible to base a scientific knowledge of pain. In the last part of this paper, having stressed that pain is a concept belonging to many disciplines--scientific, psychological, philosophical, religious--the emphasis is placed on pain itself as opposed to suffering. While the former is a concept that belongs to scientific medicine, the latter belongs to that area of medicine which lies beyond the boundaries of science and concerns the activity of a man who helps a fellow human who is suffering.
The author makes an inquiry into the diverse attitudes that the culture of Western man has assumed towards the concepts of truth and morality. Analysing five different attitudes in the consideration of relationships between "good" and "truth", he concludes that a concrete definition of truth and morality can only be sought after but never reached. Similarly, a concrete definition for bioethics can only be attempted, more questions than answers arise. Bioethics needs to define its principles to achieve its foundation. Yet bioethics, being a bridge between science and philosophy, has not succeeded in finding unequivocal principles, but it has only succeeded in posing questions. Bioethics is thus a despairing but also unavoidable venture.
OBJECTIVE: To learn the opinions of university students of four different areas on the impact of science and technology on society. SUBJECTS: One Hundred and sixty three close to graduate students of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana campus Iztapalapa, distributed as follows: Administration 59, Biology 50, Social Sciences 36 and Engineering 18. METHODS: For the survey we translated into spanish part of a questionnaire employed in several countries to explore ideas on the impact of science and technology on society of several groups. It contained general questions such as. Do you believe that science and technology are equally good or bad to society, or degree of knowledge of several technologies such as computation or in vitro fertilization. It includes also more specific questions, such as would your have problems with the use of genetically modified vegetables? RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The results suggested that Administration and Social Sciences students had less interest in Science and Technology than the other, and that in general, the knowledge of all students is rather limited including biotechnology, genetic enginering and gene therapy. We compared the results with those obtained previously in a group of Mexican Physicians and Biology students from India, Thailand and Singapor.
Christianity has been crucial in the conceptualization and articulation of the moral framework of the Western tradition. The social sciences, including ethics, were modeled on physical science. However, the Enlightenment project inculcated a metaphysics and an epistemology that reduced the subject to an object and thus undermined the conditions of freedom, agency and an accessible cosmic order; all of which are essential to morality. Competing value claims were shunted into a political context for resolution, but the politicalized morality itself requires a framework for evaluating resolutions. While neither the Enlightenment nor post-modernism can provide such a framework, Christian tradition can, in fact, provide just such a framework and response.
With the advent of the Genetic Age comes a unique new set of problems and ethical decisions. There is a tendency to take the scientific developments presented by modern genetics at face value, as if the science itself were value-neutral and not influenced by cultural and religious images. One example of the fallout of the Genetic Age is the development of a "genetic self," the idea that our essential selfhood lies in our genes. It is important to understand the assumptions of the Genetic Age, the development of genetic selfhood, and the broader cultural trends and assumptions that underlie modern genetic thinking. It is equally important, however, to shape a reaction to the concept of a genetic self. Judaism has long carried on a unique discussion about the nature of selfhood in different times and places and about the relation of the corporeal self to the essential self. Insights from Judaism therefore may help to craft a reaction to the modern genetic self that incorporates the best of modern genetics as well as the integrity of a more transcendent selfhood.
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