Christian-conservative basis of bioethics. Conservative bioethics in Russia

  1. Lemma
  2. Христианско-консервативные основы биоэтики. Консервативная биоэтика в России
  3. Russian
  4. Asliturk, Miriam
  5. Ethics - Modes of interaction > Atheism - Orthodox theological tradition and practice - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism
  6. 09-05-2017
  7. Засухина, Виктория Николаевна [Author]. Христианско-консервативные основы биоэтики. Консервативная биоэтика в России
  8. Ученые записки Забайкальского государственного университета. Серия: Философия, социология, культурология, социальная работа
  9. ethics - bioethics - Anthropocentrism - Catholic Church - Western Christianity - Russian Orthodox Church - Russian history
  10. Click Here
    1. <p>Засухина, Виктория Николаевна (2010). Христианско-консервативные основы биоэтики. Консервативная биоэтика в России. <em>Ученые записки Забайкальского государственного университета. Серия: Философия, социология, культурология, социальная работа. </em>Retrieved from: <a href="http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/hristiansko-konservativnye-osnovy-bioetiki-konservativnaya-bioetika-v-rossii">http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/hristiansko-konservativnye-osnovy-bioetiki-konservativnaya-bioetika-v-rossii</a> <br /><br /><br /></p>

    1. This article dwells on the attitudes of various religious confessions that view human life as a supreme value. The author in particular points out the basis of Christian bioethics. According to Christian anthropocentrism, the human is at the centre of God’s creation. The world exists for humans who make the world’s existence meaningful. It is thus a human mission to sustain order in the world.

      According to the author, Christianity was the first religion to introduce the idea of a unique personality that has no limits for perfection in order to be closer to God. Deontological perspectives on philosophy claim that there are absolute objective ethical norms that one has to follow. Here, the duty toward the other is more important than personal rights. The Christian idea of freedom and responsibility implies that humans are free to choose between good and evil. For Christianity, the human body is an essential part of the human personality. Seeing the body solely as a cage for the soul is heresy, according to Christian doctrine.

      The author claims that Catholicism had always been socially oriented and had clear attitudes toward modern social realities, whereas Orthodox Christianity never wanted to be part of modern trends and gave people a choice of action. According to the Orthodox doctrine, it is the human who is responsible for his or her actions and the Orthodox Church should not force humans to act in a certain way. The Russian Orthodox Church therefore does not issue instructions but recommends seeing each situation in its broader context. In this way solutions can be more flexible.

      The author believes that Western style utilitarian, pragmatic bioethics is not applicable to Russia, which has a long conservative tradition regarding ethics. This tradition is represented in Russian literature, especially in the concept of ethical centrism. Russian theologians, writers, religious thinkers were mainly interested in the realization of good and evil in human behavior. Khomyakov A. (1804-1860), Solovyev V. (1853-1900), Rozanov P. (1856-1919), Florensky E. (1882-1937) are the representatives of this tradition in Russia. I. Pavlov, member of the Soviet Academy of Science (1849-1936) remained Christian while being a materialist scientist. Even Pavlov’s scientific work on reflexes is based on the Christian idea of freedom. The author points out that modern science talks about the relativity of knowledge. Therefore there is no sense in seeing science as the only way to understand reality. It is also impossible to see the belief in God as unscientific because faith is not an intellectual act. Atheism is not scientific either because it does not have a method to prove the inexistence of God.