Conceptualizing the human being: insights from the genetics discourse and implications for Islamic bioethics

Conceptualizing the human being: insights from the genetics discourse and implications for Islamic bioethics

Padela, Aasim I.

English

20190000

Bioethical questions pertain to the techno-scientific matter at hand, the societal implications of that science and/or technology, and also involve particular ontologies. These fundamental, although often implicit, views about nature and essence undergird ethical assessment. Using qualitative content analyses of a systematic literature review, this paper identifies three ontological perspectives of the human that impact the bioethical deliberation over genetics and genomics. These three conceptions of the human being - (i) a source of information about the past, present, and future, (ii) a reproductive organism, and (iii) an evolving biological entity – implicate bioethical deliberation and need to be unpacked by theologians seeking to render moral guidance about genomic/genetic science and technology. Indeed, identifying and addressing such fundamental ontologies is particularly important for religiously informed bioethical reflection because religious traditions generate their own ontological frameworks. At present, many Islamic bioethics commentators address the moral challenges of contemporary biomedicine solely through the lens of Islamic ethics and law. By clarifying ontologies present in contemporary bioethics literature, this paper suggests that the “western” bioethics discourse that Muslim thinkers seek to respond to might require Muslims to think ontologically in addition to ethico-legally. Indeed we propose that Islamic bioethicists might benefit from detailing the views on the relationship between ontology and ethics as they advance particular moral visions for biomedicine.

2.1

2.1; 1.2; 15.1

bioethics [pri]; genetics [pri]; genomics [pri]; Islamic ethics[pri]

human characteristics; gene therapy; genetic enhancement; moral obligations; theology

human beings; Islamic bioethics

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

c

QH438.7 .I85 2019

73 refs.

9789004392137 (e-book)

In: Ghaly, Mohammed, ed. Islamic Ethics and the Genome Question. Leiden: Brill Open, 2019: 111-138