Introduction
Without any doubts, ethics play a very important role in any sphere of life. For example, medical ethics is a type of study that helps to analyze and comprehend moral values applied to medicine. Medical ethics may be compared with bioethics from time to time.
This is why it is necessary to recognize their main difference between medical ethics and bioethics – the latter deals with more expansive concerns of philosophy of science and biotechnology, and the former concentrates on professional ethics.
Without proper medical ethics, any kind of treatment may face certain problems, and patients cannot be satisfied completely with the services provided. However, it is necessary to admit that lots of people try to tie closely medicine with theology and numerous biblical outlooks.
On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics is considered to be one of the most captivating collections of essays, which help to comprehend anthology on medical ethics from a pure theological perspective. Lammers and Verhey, the authors of this book, present a comprehensive approach on how to learn medical ethics and take into consideration different theological issues.
One of the strongest and captivating essays in this book is the one by Edmund Pellegrino, “The Necessity, Promise, and Dangers of Human Experimentation”, because the author touches upon different aspects to analyze one and the same problem and uses human experimentation and its positive and negative effects as a major means to prove his ideas.
The weakest work, to my mind, is considered to be Hans Jonas’ “Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects”, because in Jonas’ words, a note of uncertainty can be noticed. In this research paper, I am going to analyze both of them, find out what make them strong and weak, and present a kind of biblical-theological outlook at medical ethics in general.
Discussion
The Necessity, Promise, and Dangers of Human Experimentation
Today, medicine turns out to be rather advanced because of numerous observations and the variety of clinical cases. In order to present the real history of disease, it is necessary to observe and analyze several cases of one and the same disease, and only then some predictions.
This is why I cannot but agree with the words of Edmund Pellegrino as for an extreme emergence of physicians in the role of scientists.
However, to get the necessary results in the experiment, it is necessary to test patients. Sometimes, doctors cannot come to one and the same conclusions, and have to test their patients more and more in order to achieve the desirable results.
It means to cause certain discomfort for the patient and make him/her spend several extra days in hospitals. Someone may say that such obligations go against human rights. But still, Pellegrino underlines that “the dangers to the patient, however, are usually minor and the invasion of personal rights is minimal.” (Lammers and Verhey 1998, 891)
It is one of the reasons that help me to comprehend that this essay is worthy of attention and evaluation, because the author finds out some shortage and tries to give a clear explanation to it immediately.
In this essay, the author concentrates on the necessity of human experimentations, but also, does not forget to speculate upon such issues as dangers to the privacy rights, the possibility of disclosure, and, of course, the right to live free.
One of the powerful points in this work is the idea of personal rights and its connection to medicine and theology. “There are imaginable instances in which participation as a subject in human experiments can be regarded a duty as well as a charitable act.” (Lammers and Verhey 1998, 900)
Such idea has its own interpretations in physicians, ethicians, and theologians. For theologians, it is necessary to temper all their discoveries with charity and duty. For ethicians, it is better to concentrate on human rights and their responsibilities before society. For physicians, it is obligatory to provide a patient with the necessary security during the experiments.
According to Pellegrino, “medicine… is one of man’s potent instruments for enlarging both his individual and his social being” and “must respond to the current challenges by creating a new unity of its scientific, ethical and social perspectives.” (Lammers and Verhey 1998, 902)
This is why in order to correspond to all the standards in medicine and achieve the necessary purpose, it is crucially important to pay attention to social and theological aspects and never forget about them.
Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects
Hans Jonas, the author of the other article under consideration, tells that human experiments are inherent to many fields of science and promote a certain progress.
He starts his discussion from the explanation of peculiarities of human experiments and tells that “experimentation was originally sanctioned by natural science”, however, very soon, the “innocence of the search for knowledge is lost and questions of conscience arise.” (Lammers and Verhey 1998, 904)
To my mind, one of the weak sides of this work that the author poses rather concrete questions, but the answers are not that concrete and cannot persuade the reader. He offers to take this or that question, then presents a number of questions, and spends less time to explain everything, this is why much more answers appear at the end than it was at the beginning.
“We must look inside” or “we must, in other words, distinguish between moral obligations and the much larger sphere of moral value”(Lammers and Verhey 1998, 910) – the text is full of such phrases.
The point is that the author tries to explain something only by means of real life examples. To my mind, it is better to combine theory with practice: first, introduce some ethical issue, then pose a question, and finally, explain everything.
Another point that I cannot appreciate is the use of complicated terms in inverted commas. “Conscription”, “social contract”, or “individual versus society” – such phrases are really hard to understand from the first sight.
It is necessary to spend some time to analyze the possible variations of these words, and then try to guess what this part of the essay will be about. Medical ethics and theology are the studies, which are a bit difficult to comprehend at first. It is necessary to present the information using as simple language as possible.
People, who just want to grasp the main details about some issues, will find lots of misunderstandings and pose lots of questions, but, unfortunately, cannot find the necessary answers.
This is why, on the one hand, “Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects” may be analyzed as a professional article with the description of the significant concepts, which are crucially important for understanding of medical ethics in connection to theology.
On the other hand, this essay present too many unfamiliar words, which may confuse the reader and make him/her analyze the issues, which are not really significant for the issue under consideration.
A Biblical-Theological Outlook
“Some of the most important biblical authorities insisted that charity must be the guiding principle of exegesis: any interpretation that spread hatred or disdain was illegitimate.” (Armstrong 2007, 5) Such words help to clear up that according to “The Holly Bible”, people should be charitable and be ready to help the other.
Of course, human experiments may be approved due to one simple truth – all these tests may help to save someone’s life in future. It is necessary to admit that Christianity, one of the most known world religions, focuses on the idea that human nature is depraved because of numerous experiments and technical innovations.
Is “The Bible” really true? If it is than human experiments may be considered as another charity that will save lots of lives. However, at the same time, such researchers put under a threat the very idea of this life and God’s power.
People get sick, rack with pain, die, and then find themselves in Heaven. The belief is something that helps people live. The idea, that numerous prayers and trust in God, is something that can save. Without faith, our life does not make sense. The only thing I want to add is that God provides his people with different opportunities.
God cannot be at lots of places simultaneously, and this is why his angels, in this world, they are known as doctors, are eager to help people, release patients from pain, and even save lives.
If it was unnecessary to test people and create more and more experiments on people, God will hardly allow their continuation and such development of this sphere.
If people take into account medical ethics, certain moral norms, and theological concepts, their activities will not be that harmful and present sick people one more opportunity to continue living and enjoying this life.
Conclusions
“Modern medical science creates new moral choices, and challenges traditional views that we have of ourselves.” (Hope 2004, 1) Cloning and human experiments arise our society a bit and provide people with an opportunity to improve our lives and living conditions. People always have a chance to choose.
If they feel pretty good to participate in different human experiments in order to help other people and save innocent lives, such charity cannot be called into question. Even “The Bible” and different Christian concepts cannot disprove this fact and good intentions to help people.
With the help of Edmund Pellegrino’s “The Necessity, Promise, and Dangers of Human Experimentation”, we can analyze what benefits and shortages any human experiment can have. This author articulates the necessity of human experiments in spite of possible negative effects.
Hans Jonas’ “Philosophical Reflections on Experimenting with Human Subjects” is another article that was under a thorough consideration. In this work, the author cannot provide the reader with a clear picture of why human experiments are effective or not.
He tries to make his work stronger be means of examples and terminology. This is why this story may be rather complicated for the beginners and cause some misunderstandings.
Reference List
Armstrong, Karen. 2007. The Bible: A Biography. Atlantic Monthly Press.
Hope, R.A. 2004. Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Lammers, Stephen, E. and Verhey, Allen. 1998. On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.