Religious Perspectives on Human Vulnerability in Bioethics: (2 Advancing Global Bioethics)

With the advance of biomedicine, certain individuals and groups are vulnerable because of their incapacities to defend themselves. The International Bioethics Committee as a UNESCO working group has for the last several years dedicated to deepen this principle of human vulnerability and personal integrity. This book serves to supplement this effort with a religious perspective given a great number of the world's population is affiliated with some religious traditions. While there is diversity within each of these traditions, all of them carry in them the mission to protect the weak, the underprivileged, and the poor. Thus, here presented is a collection of papers written by bioethics experts from six major world religions--Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism--who were gathered to discuss the meaning and implications of the principle of vulnerability in their respective traditions.

Table of Contents:
Preface                         Alberto Garcia   Introduction             The principle of vulnerability: meeting ground of six religions Joseph Tham   General considerations of the principle of vulnerability in bioethics Vulnerability: How did the principle come about? Gonzalo Miranda   The principle of vulnerability in the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights Henk ten Have   Vulnerability: Considerations on the Appropriate use of the Term in Bioethics. Martha Tarasco Michel   The principle of vulnerability from philosophical, ethical and legal points of view From six different religious perspectives, this section looks at 1) Anthropology of vulnerability (e.g., questions on human contingency, suffering and mortality); 2)  Ethics of vulnerability (e.g., respect, compassion /mercy, charity / love); 3) Legal aspects of vulnerability (religious and civil) Vulnerability, Compassion, and Ethical Responsibility: A Buddhist Perspective on the Phenomenology of Illness and Health Ellen Y. Zhang   The Ethical and the Legal Aspects of Vulnerability in the Christian Perspective Stamatios Tzitzis   Family as First Bulwark for the Vulnerable:  Confucian Perspectives on the Anthropology and Ethics of Human Vulnerability Ping Chueng Lo   Between Tradition and Modernity:  Bioethics, Vulnerabilities and Social Change in Hinduism Prakash Desai Human Vulnerability in Islam Mustafa Abusway   Reflections on human vulnerability and the rabbinic perspective on medical ethics Yechiel Michael Barilan   Reponses to vulnerable groups in six religions This section looks at the way different religious tradtions repond to the need of vulnerable groups in society, in particular children, women, eldery and the handicapped. Buddhist perspectives Soraj Hongladarom   Christian perspectives Hans Ucko Colleen M Gallagher Confucian perspectives Jonathan Chan   Hindu perspectives Vasantha Muthuswamy   Isalmic perspectives Dariusch Atighetchi   Jewish perspectives Adina Halevy and Jonathan Halevy David Heyd  

Review :
From the book reviews: "This is a compilation of essays from different religious and cultural perspectives regarding human vulnerability in bioethics. ... this book is intended for people studying or working in bioethics. It is also suitable for students of comparative religion, public policy, health policy, and other related fields. ... This collection of essays is successful in sharing the authentic voices of a diverse group of religious and cultural perspectives." (Jessica Roach, Doody's Book Reviews, January, 2015)