Buddhism & Bioethics PDF
Preview Buddhism & Bioethics
BUDDHISM & BIOETHICS Also by Damien Keown and from the same publishers THE NATURE OF BUDDHIST ETHICS Buddhistn & Bioethics Damien Keown Lecturer in Indian Religion Goldsmiths, University of London © Damien Keown 1995 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995 978-0-333-61858-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1995 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Hound mills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-23983-2 ISBN 978-1-349-23981-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23981-8 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 First published in the United States of America 1995 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-12671-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Keown, Damien, 1951- Buddhism & bioethics I Damien Keown. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Buddhist ethics. 2. Bioethics. I. Title. BJ1289.K43 1995 294.3'5642-dc20 94-5776 CIP ForJo Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction ix 1 Buddhism, Medicine and Ethics 1 I Buddhism and medicine 1 II Buddhism and ethics 6 III Doing Buddhist ethics 11 IV Humans, animals and persons 21 V Ethics and human good 37 VI A test case 57 2 At the Beginning of Life 65 I When does life begin? 65 II Reflections on the three conditions 73 III Embryo loss and twinning 82 IV Abortion 91 V Embryo research 118 VI Fertility control 122 3 At the End of Life 139 I Defining death 139 II Buddhism and death 144 III The persistent vegetative state 158 IV Euthanasia: early sources 168 V Euthanasia: modem views 173 Notes 188 Bibliography 199 Glossary 204 Index 206 vii Acknowledgements I wish to record my thanks to my brother John, Lecturer in the Law and Ethics of Medicine at Cambridge University, for generously sharing his expertise in discussions too numerous to recall, and for his comments and suggestions on drafts of the manuscript. My thanks also to Jason Lyon for his diligent proofreading. I remain, of course, solely responsible for the accuracy of what follows. viii Introduction This book is an attempt to apply Buddhist principles to some major contemporary problems in biomedical ethics. It is the first contribu tion of its kind and is written for a broad general readership ranging from specialists in Buddhism who may know little about medical ethics to ethicists with an interest in medical issues who know little or nothing of Buddhism. It will also be of interest to the growing number of Buddhists in the West and elsewhere who would like to see these issues receive a higher priority than they have been given so far either by the tradition or the academic community. My intention has been to make the book accessible to the widest possible audience by expressing Buddhist ideas and concepts in a form intelligible to the general reader. It assumes no prior knowl edge of either Buddhism or ethics. Technical terms and foreign words have been kept to a minimum, and English equivalents used wherever possible. Diacritical marks have been omitted with the exception of the tilde (-) which functions as an aid to pronunciation. A brief sketch of Buddhism is given below and a glossary of Buddhist terms is provided at the end. Despite the contemporary importance of issues such as abortion and euthanasia, there has been comparatively little discussion of them from a Buddhist perspective. Other problems in medical ethics such as embryo research and the definition of 'death' have scarcely been raised. My intention is to explore this archipelago of little known moral islands and in so doing to construct an intellectual bridge of some kind between them. In more prosaic terms the aim is to formulate a set of principles which can be applied with con sistency across a range of biomedical problems. In terms of the academic discipline involved we understand the present study as a contribution to the field of applied normative ethics.1 As the twenty first century fills the horizon, one of the greatest challenges facing Buddhism is to evolve a perspective on bioethical issues which is both comprehensive and systematic. It is beyond the scope of any single study to achieve both of these goals, and the present volume may be thought of as a prologue to the work which lies ahead. Each of the substantive issues dealt with here deserves at least a volume to itself, and it is to be hoped that the opportunity will arise in due ix Introduction X course to provide a more selective treatment of the myriad issues here left unresolved. Buddhism: a thumbnail sketch What is known to the West as 'Buddhism' is a body of religious teachings attributed to an historical individual who lived in North East India in the fifth century BC. Following a profound spiritual transformation achieved at the age of thirty-five he became known by the honorific title of 'Buddha' ('enlightened one'). The Buddha claimed no divine provenance for his teachings and understood them as being grounded in the nature of things. For this reason the word for the teachings (Dharma) also refers to the immutable laws of both the natural and moral orders of which they are the expres sion. Personal realisation in Buddhism, therefore, consists of living in accordance with Dharma, and anyone who follows Buddhist teachings can replicate the spiritual transformation achieved by the founder. The teachings are expounded in the form of four basic propositions known as the Four Noble Truths. These maintain that life as we now know it is imperfect and unsatisfactory; that the causes of this unsatisfactoriness are craving and ignorance; that there exists a state of perfection free from all deficiencies (nirvana); and that the way to perfection is the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path is a programme for right living which emphasises three things: moral cultivation, meditation, and knowledge of the true nature of the human condition. As far as moral conduct is concerned the Buddha laid down certain basic precepts. There are many formula tions of precepts in Buddhism but the best known are the Five Pre cepts for laymen. The Five Precepts forbid: 1. Taking life 2. Stealing 3. Sexual misconduct 4. Lying 5. Taking intoxicants The Buddha appointed no successor, and many different schools arose after his death. Buddhism spread widely and influenced every Asian civilization, but it has no head and there is no central authority which is the custodian of orthodoxy. The Buddhism of southern Asia is predominantly that of the more conservative Theravada school, while that of northern Asia belongs to the more
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