ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Modern bioethical issues in the context of the basic principles of Buddhist ethics
1 St. Petersburg State University of Chemistry and Pharmacy, St. Petersburg, Russia
2 Tyumen State Medical University, Tyumen, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Elena N Sobolnikova
5th Sovetskaya str., 6, apt. 40, St. Petersburg, 191036, Russia; ur.tsil@avokinlobos
Author contribution: Sobolnikova EN is an author of the scientific study, organizer of the research, work with primary sources, development of research methodology, and analysis of research results; Doroneva NV is a co-author of the scientific study, analysis and translation of English sources for research, analysis of research results.
The relevance of this research consists in reconsideration of the main approaches to solving bioethical problems based on the religious and ethical principles of Buddhism. The purpose of this research is to analyze Buddhist principles that can be consistently applied to a range of biomedical problems (euthanasia, biomedical experiments with animals, etc.). The subject of our research is ethics in the context of medicine, namely the relationship between Buddhism and medical practice. The research materials are based on many years of teaching the bioethics course at St. Petersburg State University of Chemistry and Pharmacy and Tyumen State Medical University, as well as on the results of research related to the development of scientific research of bioethical issues. The central question of modern bioethics about the nature and status of the moral subject in Buddhism is based on the principle of the moral dignity of all living beings: from human life to the life of animals and, perhaps, even plants. Belief in interspecific rebirth and respect for animal life are typical of Buddhist ethics. In modern ethics, Buddhism is a teleological ethics of virtue, which postulates a certain end result of life as the implementation of human potential and asserts that this goal should be realized through cultivation of certain spiritual practices, which implies the rejection of euthanasia, abortion, artificial insemination and other dvanced medical technologies.
Keywords: IVF, transplantation, euthanasia, buddhist medicine, Tibetan Book of the Dead, biomedical experiments on animals, human birth/death