فصلنامه اخلاق زیستی
پیاپی 1 (پاییز 1390)

The current epoch is characterized by the production and supply of new biomedical technologies, the supply of which has resulted in philosophical, ethical, religious and social debates and challenges. These biotechnologies include artificial fertilization and babies in vitro, animal and human cloning, obtaining fetus stem cells and exploiting them, euthanasia, the manufacture of human tissues and organs, and implantation. In view of these widespread questions, ambiguities and challenges in the area of biotechnologies, applied ethics as a branch of normative ethics has become responsible for supporting the examination and explanation of these subjects and for finding accurate answers about them on the basis of known moral theories and ethical principles. Hence, bioethics as a new sub-branch of applied ethics, in facing these debates and problems resulting from the emergence of new biomedical technologies, has developed in recent decades and has become liable for the explanation of the principles and guidelines for resolving those difficulties. In this essay, the author attempts to provide an inclusive and precise definition of bioethics and to describe its location between different branches of ethics as well as to delineate its scope and boundaries.

Many disputes in biomedical ethics in the west stem from disputes about the extent to which normative principles in this domain can be generalized throughout various cultures such that certain actions can be universally acknowledged as required, prohibited or permitted. In Muslim countries, among various articles on the framework of Islamic bioethics, there had been no studies about the nature of moraltheological discourse that informed the development of the Islamic legal-ethical system. In other words, their descriptive rather than analytical approach to the debate about the principles of biomedical rulings in Islam does not deal with Islamic theological-philosophical ethics and the way it has affected medical jurisprudence in the modern times. The ethical questions in contemporary discussions require attention to larger questions about what constitutes ethical conduct in Islam rather than the mere presentation of the legal rulings as regards issues like abortion, organ donation and so on. There is no consensus among Muslim jurists of various schools of Islamic law on any of these issues. In the cross-cultural context of bioethics, the work of Muslim scholars would be significantly enhanced by systematic investigations into the underlying principles and rules of practical ethical guidance in the Islamic tradition which is rooted in Islamic theology.

Abrahamic religions refer to three religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism that are inspired by the ancient tradition of Abraham in the Semitic writings. These religions, all believe in the prophecy theory, i.e. God selects certain individuals and sends them messages directly and through an angel. The main feature of aforesaid religions is that the prophets are addressed by God. Although these three religions enjoy three distinct and different theological systems, but they have a lot of common features so that they may be placed in a category. The present paper intends to explain and illustrate existing similarities and differences in the ethical decision making in the biological affairs between them by discussing the fundamentals of the bioethics in theses religions.

Although nowadays science and technologies including biomedical sciences are interestingly developing, ethical requirements of such developments are not considered in Islamic world based on regional and Islamic dimensions. International bodies who are dealing with ethics of science and technology also are not fully aware of religious requirement of bioethical issues in Islamic countries. On the other hand, developing a comprehensive ethical theory in bioethics needs precise and deep deliberation in ideological and philosophical underpinnings. To start such reflection a suitable way which we used in this article would be a comparative study in ideological and meta ethical differences and similarities between Islamic and secular bioethics. Thus this article tries to explore ideological differences in the first part such as differences on attitudes toward the creator or origin of the universe, differences on attitudes toward the whole universe and difference on the attitudes toward this world properties and tradition. Then we will turn to anthropologic differences including dereferences on attitudes toward human creation, different dimensions of human life and After-Death life and the last set of differences which we will discuss are meta ethical differences between Islamic and secular bioethics including on ethologic, epistemological and semantic differences. In the second port of the article, similarities, which most seems to be normative, are disused. Finally we concluded that acceptance of existing differences and similarities as facts are inevitable and would be a potential start point for a mutual dialogue between secular and developing Islamic bioethics as an independent theory.

There has been no definition of the “Intrinsic Human Dignity” and no basis has been stated for it too that has been mentioned in the preamble of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenants” and has been considered as the “cornerstone of freedom and justice and peace.” However, in the Islamic texts, particularly in the works of mystics, it has been ignored as a genuine source, even among Muslims themselves, although the intrinsic human dignity has been clearly explained and its fundamentals have been consolidated. The writer has chosen the distinguished figure of the Islamic mysticism, i.e. Muhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi for the explanation of the “Intrinsic Human Dignity” and has stated his opinions about the human being within his ontological context. In Ibn Arabi’s opinion, the cause for the human dignity is that he has been created in the “divine form” and has been made a living thing containing the names and attributes of the Truth. In this respect, the human being is like the mirror of the Truth and its showing and both demonstrates a sign of the absolute truth and eternal beauty and glory and also does not present the human being except as a virtual being.

The image of utopia has a very old history among the Islamic theologians. Abu Nasr Farabi who has been called as the Second Teacher, describes an utopia known as the "Ideal City". The westerners have also mentioned it as the "City of God". Allama Iqbal Lahori has portrayed a city and named it "Marghadayn" and then has described it. An interesting point viewed in his portray is his attention to the issue of the natural environment that has been completely derived from the Islamic-Quranic teachings and his theological knowledge. The present paper addresses his understanding and compares it with the view of some western philosophers who have been contemporaneous with him so as to determine how two religious and secular attitudes look the nature.