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Buddhism and Ethics - Stem Cell Research
buddhafoot
Veteran
Buddhism and Ethics - Stem Cell Research
Hi all.
I'm just giving this a shot after some discussions that Brian and I had regarding content, discussion items, etc. I'm also wanting to post something so I can figure out how all of this works!
So, a topic for today... Buddhist beliefs and Stem Cell Research.
We've had discussions regarding life, death, and abortion - but we've never really hit on the issue of Stem Cell Research.
It's really fascinating stuff. The possibility of "growing" limbs and organs to have them available to people that might need them!
I've heard what Christian based groups think about this topic, but I'm wondering what ordained or lay Buddhist think about this.
Here's a quick link to a site that provides a 'quick and dirty' list of the pros and cons: http://www.physiciansforlife.ca/stemcellproandcon.html
Let us know what YOU think.
-bf
Hi all.
I'm just giving this a shot after some discussions that Brian and I had regarding content, discussion items, etc. I'm also wanting to post something so I can figure out how all of this works!
So, a topic for today... Buddhist beliefs and Stem Cell Research.
We've had discussions regarding life, death, and abortion - but we've never really hit on the issue of Stem Cell Research.
It's really fascinating stuff. The possibility of "growing" limbs and organs to have them available to people that might need them!
I've heard what Christian based groups think about this topic, but I'm wondering what ordained or lay Buddhist think about this.
Here's a quick link to a site that provides a 'quick and dirty' list of the pros and cons: http://www.physiciansforlife.ca/stemcellproandcon.html
Let us know what YOU think.
-bf
0
Comments
I feel that this is a very interesting topic. To have a stand on this issue through a 'Buddhist' perspective, however, is quite difficult. Buddhism is not a concrete framework as much as it is a changing vortex of views and perceptions leading to the cessation of dukkha.
I guess it all depends on your point of view really.
One one hand you can see trying to "grow" more limbs for oneself as a selfish attempt at permanence, but on the other hand you can see it as a way to relieve suffering, albeit temporarily.
I believe that the people involved in stem cell research basically have good intentions (besides the ones doing it for the fame and the almighty dollar), however, I believe that it is less out of compassion and more out of delusion that they attempt these things.
It's a race to prolong death, to keep the conditions for life going until the very, bitter end. Is death really so scary that we must do everything imaginable to avoid it for as long as possible - everything from using animals to test drugs and gene therapies to using human cells, embryos, and fetuses?
Yes, they can help. Yes, they can possibly cure diseases. Yes, they may benefit all of "humanity", but the world is suffering from the affects of "humanity" as it is. To increasingly add more people to the population while prolonging the lives of the ones already here without first being more aware of our impact to this planet, in my honest opinion, is dangerous.
No more room, no more resources, no more us. (We are a conditioned phenomenon as well - we need the air, the atmosphere, the plants and animals, etc.)
I personally feel that if we are to use stem cells, along with other kinds of research, to prolong life we need to do it only after we truly understand our responsibility to the rest of the planet. I feel this to be true for all technologies as well. The world is moving a little too fast for it's own good. Before coming up with the next big break-through, maybe we should take that time to consider what these things will do 20, 50, or 100 years from now. Will they truly help us, or harm us.
The industrial revloution was thought at the time to be a great gift to mankind, and now it's being blamed for global warming and a depleted ozone layer, not to mention the increased slave labor of factory workers in indusrialized nation (i.e. China).......it does make you think doesn't it?
But, as always, these are just my personal opinions and not necessarily how every Buddhist will (or should) view it.
Jason
Embryonic stem cell research has been the most controversial type of stem cell research by far, but I support it as well - provided that it comes from embryos that would not otherwise be carried to term (i.e. abortions and miscarriages). So long as countries allow abortion (a whole other controversy) I see no reason to just toss out cells that could be used to help others.
Mankind, in my opinion, is moving 'too fast' in some spheres, and 'not fast enough' in others... or perhaps I just mean that there is not enough responsibility taken into looking ahead to where all this is taking us. We're extremely blinkered and short-sighted sometimes, and I don't think the full implications or consequences are ever considered.
or maybe I do the scientistsn researchers and biologists an injustice -
Maybe they DO lie awake at night wondering if they have the 'Divine' Right to play God.... On the one hand, they have the true realiseable ability to transform the lives of human beings who would otherwise not have the opportunity to lead full, healthy and fulfilling lives - or maybe they're messing with Nature's faultless method of selection - one which we've already tampered with....
I just think that the further we get away from Nature, the closer we move towards self-destruction... but as Elohim points out - far more eloquently than I - we're conditioned phenomena... I'm just wondering if we're not accellerating the process needlessly....
Remember:
We haven't inherited this planet from our forefathers, we're responsible for looking after it now, and then handing it to our children - and what world are we busy creating for them?
I've thought to myself and said, "Self... do you know that some form of man has been around for thousands and thousands of years!?!?! Some specialist figure it anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 years.
That's a long time.
That's a lot of people.
The Industrial Revolution was what?.... 200 years ago?
In the space of 200 years we've been able to damage the Earth more than all the other "humans" that have been here for 30,000 to 50,000. That is truly sad.
I know there is a song out that says, "It's better to burn out than to fade away" - but as we get older, we realize that's not really the truth.
As for Stem Cell research - it also allows for "healers" to deal with many more medical issues than just limbs and transplants.
In regards to our ability to heal and propogate the life of individuals - I've also read that the human race is the only species out of all the species on Earth that is actually supporting "weak" traits that we carry down to our off-spring.
In the wild - the weakest are the first to go. The strongest survive. But with humans, we have the ability to provide medicine or processes which keep those of us that would "naturally" die to continue living and passing these medical conditions onto our children.
I know this is a little off subject - but Elohim and Fede got me thinking...
-bf
These complex questions are completely unanswerable to any precise degree... it's a Socio-ethical, moral minefield..... and this is where I believe we actually need to cut our Great World leaders a bit of slack....
These are decisions that Messrs Bush & Blair have to make - on our behalf, all the time. They have to consider the permits for such clinics, weighing up all the facts and ramifications, and debating on the future outcomes.... with the absolute guarantee that whatever answer they come up with there will always be controversy and dissent and protest and outcry.... wasn't it Mr. Abe Lincoln who said:
"You can please all of the people some of the time, and
you can please some of the people all of the time -
But you can't please all of the people all of the time!"
The political discussion of stem-cell research is related to government funding. I am absolutely against government funding for the research. The beauty of the free-market capitalism we live in is that the market will drive anything worth driving. Remember: stem-cell usage is all theory and possibility right now so it may end up being fruitless anyway.
If there is a likelihood that stem-cell research will yield miraculous cures, it seems logical that pharmaceutical companies will pay for the research on their own. The profits they would make from these cures would be astronomical. The profit-motivator is a beautiful thing.
This is beauty? All that I see driven is personal greed, growing poverty and marginalisation, lower wages, anti-union legislation, imperialist aggression and ecological damage. Enron was a perfect 'market driven' organisation in which individuals enriched themselves at the expense of the community. Remember "Savings and Loans"?
Personally I think that cloning anything is an okay idea, just that treating them like crap isn't. A clone would very much follow the same Buddhist system of life and death, but whether or not karma and rebirth and stuff happens, I don't care to know. Hell! Educate all clones in the Buddhist Path and who cares about Heaven and Hell...
Cloning is oftenly argued that organs that are 100% compatible with some guy would be good to save his life. Well, you created a life, you destroyed it. I would consider the doctor a murderer, and the guy, no matter how sick he is, an accomplice. You brought something to life. You don't have the rigt to kill it, no matter what you argue. You like it if there was a God, and God killed you the moment you were born and slided out of your Mum? No! You'd want this God to give you a chance to live, then die somehow or another.
Well cloning is something very weird, so maybe you can say clones have no life, no conciousness or anything. Whatever it is, I have no idea! I'm not a clone, not even a Buddha. I guess even a Buddha would have problems answering your question.