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SCIENCE, ETHICS AND THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE
Jorge Ybarnegaray Urquidi. Ph D
Prof. Bioethics Universidad Católica Boliviana
Observation and reason are the natural methods available to discover reality. Science
uses the reason to analyze data observation to link causes and effects, in order to make
experiments, develop concepts or build models.
A physician is the observer of human life and he must use the cognitive and scientific
method to be aware of the reality and as an application to a target, the development of the
human being which must be respected.
A human being with the moral sense he has, can make judgments of values, anticipate
facts and distinguish good from evil. This ethical capability is related to the evolutionary
process and the development of a high intellectual function of individuals, in order to be
responsible for what he has to do with his life.
After a long development of scientific and technological development, we wonder if the
human being is free to do with his life whatever he wants technically?
We must admit that scientific research and our behavior should have certain limits, at first
there are ethical limits and then legal ones.
One of the most important scientific advance that make us appreciate even more the value
of human life, is the human genome research. UNESCO recognizes that research on the
genome and their application, opened immense perspectives to improve the health of all
mankind and emphasizes that he must respect the dignity, the freedom and the rights of
the individual, and at the same time forbids discrimination based on genetic
characteristics. Proclaim of the Universal Declaration on the genome and of human rights
on 20-12-1996 which first article says: "the human genome is the basis of the fundamental
unity of all members of the human family and the recognition of inherent dignity and
diversity. In symbolic meaning, the genome is the heritage of mankind"... "Each individual
has the right to be respected for their dignity and rights, regardless of their genetic
characteristics."
Pope John Paul II expressed thereon to the Pontifical Academy for Life: "the human
genome is like the last continent discovered", and encouraged scientists to continue their
research in molecular biology. At the same time, he showed his concern when he said:
“It is alive the tendency to investigate knowledge not only to admire and contemplate, but
to increase the power of things. Knowledge and power go always together and mingle with
more than one kind of logic which can imprison mankind.
Those who respect human rights and the genome affirm that human life is inviolable, but
on the other hand, we see that different social situations are endangering life and this fact,
in social and political terms, is a real contradiction.
While promoting human rights, there are those who are allowed to legislate in favor of
abortion, euthanasia or the death penalty, denying life to those who are not born yet or to
people before death.
The idea of freedom is perverted with subjectivism and individualism in a world that
proudly makes human rights its flag but on the other hand, violates the lives of innocents
and defenseless beings.
Human beings that fall in the mistake to think they are the absolute owners of life, arrive to
ethic relativism and morality, and loose the sense of the genuine freedom, autonomy and
justice.