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.

See also: Medicine, Ethics

Table of contents

1 External links 2 References (general) 3 Muslim bioethics 4 Jewish Bioethics 5 Christian bioethics

External links

• The American Journal of Bioethics
• The U.S.A. President's Council on Bioethics
• National Institute of Health: Bioethics resources on the web
• American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
• The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity (A Christian bioethics council)
• Jewish bioethics on the web
• Bioethics program at the Universoty of Judaism, Los Angelos, California
• Jewish Bioethics, from Jerusalem?s Darche Noam Educational Institute
• Bioethics for clinicians: Islamic bioethics - Canadian Medical Association Journal

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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