Bioethics as Biopolitics
- May 20, 2018
- Posted by: RSIS
- Category: Philosophy
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume V, Issue IV, April 2018 | ISSN 2321–2705
Sabina S.
Research Scholar, Department of Philosophy, University of Calicut, Kerala, India
Ethics expresses certain ideas about the values of human beings, of human society and of the living nature. Since ethics belongs to the self-understanding of every human being, it is what is and what ought to be. It is also a vision which shapes us as human beings and also as person who has having the ability to take responsibilities for our life with others and with the whole world. Ethics today has also the specific potentials extending to the realm of medicine and health care. We are living in a world that is visibly different from that of one another and the difference is much due to the techno scientific revolution in all the domains of life. This keeps philosophers bring more with the analysis of ethical issues than with metaphysical questions.
Van Renesselaer Potter used the term bioethics to refer to a new discipline that combines biological knowledge with knowledge of human value systems. From the second half of 20th century, the field of bioethics has expanded and complicated enormously in proportional with the speed of technological, scientific and other social developments. More than an interdisciplinary enterprise, bioethics has now occupied the public consciousness in an unprecedented ways. Thus it has claimed to be a project of reflection on the moral issue raised by new technology. Its main concerns was always concrete and goal of bioethics was a decision making endeavour which is rationally defensible and capable of being communicated to others. These decisions were grounded in a systematic reflection based on fundamental values and moral principles. But the values and principles are almost defective in applicability. Instead of relying upon a particular theory, it focuses upon certain moral principles. These principles are too broad and general and seem to be difficult to apply to practical situations. Principles like beneficence, nonmaleficience, respect for autonomy and justice conflicts each other and this shows its ineffectiveness to actual life situations. Now there is a perception of a gradual transformation in bioethics. This transformation is characterized by an increasing politicization of bioethical issues, ie. one’s bioethical views reflects one’s political assumptions concerning the nature, goals and values that guide the biomedical sciences.
