Controversial Biological Issues

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the pace of human scientific progress proceeds faster than the ability of medical ethicists to cope rationally with scientific developments. The author points out that, while issues of controversy are often framed in 'rights based' or legal terms, medical science must provide some answers as to how to cope ethically with these issues, just as lawyers wrestle with issues of civil rights. The paper states that, even though there is not an issue of genetic connection between the carrying surrogate mother and child, the author believes the problems of the mother's feelings seem to promote more social harm than good and potentially put the child produced from the union at psychological risk.

From the Paper:

"However, of all of these bioethical controversies, none of them is as old nor strikes as vitally at the question of what has the right to live and die, as the controversy of using animal life to prolong the life of humans. People have experimented with animals for hundreds of years, but the practice did not become widespread until the late 1800's. While animal experimentation has produced considerable benefits to people, it often results in the suffering and death of animals. Often, scientists justify experimentation because animals lack certain attributes compared to humans, such as intelligence, family structure, social bonding, communication skills, and altruism. However, numerous nonhuman animals-among them rats, pigs, dogs, monkeys, and great apes-reason and/or display altruism. There is accumulating evidence that many animals experience the same range of emotions as humans."

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