Hindu Bioethics for the Twenty-first Century

S. Cromwell Crawford

Description

S. Cromwell Crawford breaks new ground in this provocative study of Hindu bioethics in a Western setting. He provides a new moral and philosophical perspective on fascinating and controversial bioethical issues that are routinely in the news: cloning, genetic engineering, the human genome project, reproductive technologies, the end of life, and many more. This Hindu perspective is particularly noteworthy because of India's own indigenous medical system, which is stronger than ever and drawing continued interest from the West. The Hindu bioethics presented in this book are philosophically pluralistic and ethically contextual, giving them that conceptual flexibility which is often missing in Western religions, but which is demanded by the twenty-first century's complex moral problems. Comprehensive in scope and passionate in nature, Crawford's study is an important resource for analyses of practical ethics, bioethics, and health care.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS

1. Hindu Ethics

2. Indian Medicine

3. A Hindu Bioethical Analysis of Health/Disease and Physician/Patient Relationships in American Society

PART TWO: ISSUES AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF LIFE

4. Technology and the Womb

5. Dilemmas at Birth

6. When Parents Let Children Suffer for Reasons of Faith

7. The Ethics of Contraception

8. The Ethics of Prenatal Diagnosis for Sex Selection

9. The Ethics of the Human Genome Project

10. The Ethics of Genetic Engineering

11. The Ethics of Cloning

12. The Ethics of Population Growth

13. The Ethics of Aging: Maximizing the Quality of Later Life

14. The Ethics of Death and Dying

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Éthique et morale
• Ethique et morale
• Hinduism
• Ethics in religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791486580
• Langue: English

Extrait

Hindu Bioethics for the Twenty-first Century

SUNY series in Religious Studies

Harold Coward, editor

Hindu Bioethics for the Twenty-first Century

S . C C R O M W E L L R A W F O R D

s t a t e u n i v e r s i t y o f n e w y o r k p r e s s

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2003 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crawford, S. Cromwell. Hindu bioethics for the twenty-first century / S. Cromwell Crawford. p. cm. — (sunyseries in religious studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0-7914-5779-6 (alk. paper) 1. Bioethics–Religious aspects—Hinduism. aspects—Hinduism. I. Title. II. Series. qh332.c73 2003 174'.957—dc21 200204

2. Medical ethics—Religious

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

4796

To Matild

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Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

c o n t e n t s

PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS Hindu Ethics Indian Medicine A Hindu Bioethical Analysis of Health/Disease and Physician/Patient Relationships in American Society

i

x

1

11 31

9

3

PART TWO: ISSUES AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF LIFE Chapter 4 Technology and the Womb 115 Chapter 5 Dilemmas at Birth 125 Chapter 6 When Parents Let Children Suffer for Reasons of Faith 131 Chapter 7 The Ethics of Contraception 138 Chapter 8 The Ethics of Prenatal Diagnosis for Sex Selection 142 Chapter 9 The Ethics of the Human Genome Project 146 Chapter 10 The Ethics of Genetic Engineering 150 Chapter 11 The Ethics of Cloning 159 Chapter 12 The Ethics of Population Growth 167 Chapter 13 The Ethics of Aging: Maximizing the Quality of Later Life 176 Chapter 14 The Ethics of Death and Dying 188

viii

Contents

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

199

213

217

223

a c k n ow l e d g m e n t s

Thanks first to the Indian Council of Philosophic Research, Delhi, for se- lecting me to present the National Lectures for 1999 at four Indian uni- versities on the subject of this volume. Many ethicists have contributed to my thought, including Tom L. Beauchamp, Howard Brody, Daniel Callahan, James Childress, Werner Fornos, H. F. Haberman, Paul Jersild, Dale Johnson, Julius Lipner, Ge- rald James Larson, David R. Larson, B. Andrew Lustig, Jack W. Provon- sha, James Rachels, Margaret and James Stutley, Robert M. Veatch, Mitchell G. Weiss, and Kenneth G. Zysk. Among specialists in Indian medicine on whose writings I have liber- ally drawn, thanks go to L. S. Bhatnagar, Prakash N. Desai, G.P. Dubey, H. N. Gupta, Sudhir Kakar, Vasant Lad, K. R. Srikantha Murthy, A. Menon, P. Ray, M. Roy, P. V. Sharma, Shriram Sharma, R. N. Singh, Shri- nivas Tilak and K. N. Udupa. Colleagues at the University of Hawaii who have given me their sup- port are Arindam Chakrabarti, Eliot Deutsch, Rama Nath Sharma, and Lee Siegel. The International Religious Foundation has invited me to conferences to present papers on Indian medicine, thanks to Thomas G. Walsh and Frank F. Kaufmann. Finally,mahaloto Harold Coward, editor of Series in Religious Stud- ies, and Nancy Ellegate of the State University of New York Press for their confidence in this work.