Chap.29 Bioethics (生物倫理), Technology, and ….ppt

Life Science 2010 Bioethics (生物倫理),Technology, and Environment Life Science 2010 Bioethics The consideration of new responsibility that has fallen upon us has produced a philosophical area that has come to be called bioethics, the ethics of life. Ethics itself implies inherent right and wrong, and so bioethics deals with the moral values of our behavior toward life on the planet. Bioethical questions Bioethical questions are of many types. But they all have one thing in common: they are difficult, if not impossible, to answer. Should we send food to countries whose population is spiraling out of control, thereby encouraging more childbearing? Should we build a dam to create electrical energy even if it means the extinction of yet another species? Should abortion be encouraged or even allowed? Should we spend public money to spare the lives of severely handicapped infants who may have to spend their lives in pain? Do we have the right to visit pain on the other species? Fig. 29.1 This raccoon, caught in a steel leg trap is in great pain awaiting the trappers club. Its coat will be sold to make coats for humans. Essay 29.1 Whose rights are they anyhow? Someone argue that the animals themselves have rights and that it is unethical for humans to violate those rights just because they can. (動物權) Medical researchers argue that experimentation with animal models must continue because this is the best way to learn about specific human problems and their treatment. Animal rightists are opposed to furs for human apparel. If one agrees that it is possible to go too far in the abuse of animals for human safety, health, or whim, then where does one draw the line? The search for that line is an exercise of the ethical approach to our behavior toward our fellow animals. The ethics of doormats(擦鞋墊) Herny David Thoreau(梭羅) once refused a doormat for his cabin at Walden Pond(Fig. 29.2) because he figured he wouldnt have time to sweep it. He needed that time, he said, to sit