Bioethics as a tool for social and environmental challenges
Bioethics, bios, life and ethos, ethics. Today we keep in mind that bioethics today goes beyond its etymology and is concerned with the new realities of science and technology, to the extent that these affect the life of living beings on the planet and environmental harmony.
According to Manuel Trevijano Etcheverría in his book What is bioethics? There is a reflection that I want to share before developing the article. "it was born as a multidisciplinary action when scientists, in addition to dominating and transforming nature, achieve a mastery and a capacity for transformation of the human being himself".
Bioethics is not a new techno-scientific discipline or a new universal ethic, it is an intellectual discipline that manages to transcend that notion and deals not only with the ethical problems derived from scientific and technological development, but also with the conditions that make the human environment ecologically balanced in natural biodiversity; and all the ethical problems related to the care and maintenance of life and health, that is, it deals with the preservation of the human species, living beings, plant species and the management of the biosphere, to maintain and conserve the environment of the planet.
That is why we can place it within different branches of the sciences, such as within the concept of integral health understood from the biological, psychological, social and environmental perspective, as the development of essential human capacities that make viable a life as long, healthy and fulfilling for all as possible.
Bioethics had its heyday as a discipline in the 70s, being the American Doctor V. R. Potter the main exponent of this, aims to be a bridge between scientific knowledge and ethics. According to Potter "A global bioethics, as a science of survival, must be able to define what is right and what is wrong in terms of survival and protection of the biosphere" from this we can extract four principles that are transversal in bioethics; autonomy, charity, non-maleficence and justice.
Despite the diversity of currents existing in the area of bioethics, we do not find any area that encompasses a bioethical citizenship and bioethical aspects around the intervention of these. As great scholars of the subject have explained, the installation of this discipline has spread throughout the world; and, on the other hand, we are privileged witnesses of this moment in human history. Now, we are witnessing the appearance of a new vision, a product of the damage that human beings are capable of causing in our common home. We need to focus on putting the value of life at the center.
Climate change is a reality, the temperature of the biosphere is warming at an unstoppable and irreversible rate as a direct consequence of the impact of human activity since the industrial revolution, and they have no comparison with previous paleo-climatic changes. Despite technological development, it is necessary to promote a new way of seeing life that is in harmony with nature.
To bring about change, we need, as citizens, practitioners and academics, to demand that States take the lead in creating conditions for the general well-being of humanity and sustainable development. Considering that this is an inescapable moral duty of the public sector through the development of necessary programs and services from a perspective of equity and social justice, protecting and respecting democracy, pluralism and diversity, and promoting the construction of a participating citizenship.
Changes in societies are not only produced by governments, they are also the product of the efforts by its citizens. As citizens of the world, we must remember the various struggles waged by our ancestors so that we have the rights we have today. And fight for rights and the world we want to leave to our descendants.
