Hindu Bioethics for the Twenty-first CenturyExplores contemporary controversies in bioethics from a Hindu perspective. S. Cromwell Crawford breaks new ground in this provocative study of Hindu bioethics in a Western setting. He provides a new moral and philosophical perspective on fascinating and controversial bioethical issues that are routinely in the news: cloning, genetic engineering, the human genome project, reproductive technologies, the end of life, and many more. This Hindu perspective is particularly noteworthy because of India's own indigenous medical system, which is stronger than ever and drawing continued interest from the West. The Hindu bioethics presented in this book are philosophically pluralistic and ethically contextual, giving them that conceptual flexibility which is often missing in Western religions, but which is demanded by the twenty-first century's complex moral problems. Comprehensive in scope and passionate in nature, Crawford's study is an important resource for analyses of practical ethics, bioethics, and health care. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
FOUNDATIONS | 8 |
Hindu Ethics II | 11 |
Indian Medicine | 31 |
A Hindu Bioethical Analysis of HealthDisease and PhysicianPatient Relationships in American Society | 93 |
ISSUES AT THE BEGINNING AND END OF LIFE | 113 |
Technology and the Womb | 115 |
Dilemmas at Birth | 125 |
The Ethics of Prenatal Diagnosis for Sex Selection | 142 |
The Ethics of the Human Genome Project | 146 |
The Ethics of Genetic Engineering | 150 |
The Ethics of Cloning | 159 |
The Ethics of Population Growth | 167 |
Maximizing the Quality of Later Life | 176 |
The Ethics of Death and Dying | 188 |
Notes | 199 |
When Parents Let Children Suffer for Reasons of Faith | 131 |
The Ethics of Contraception | 138 |
Glossary | 213 |
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abortion agni ahimsā ancient animals Arjuna Ayurveda Ayus babies Basham beneficence Bhagavadgītā birth body Brahman Buddhism Caraka cause cells child cloning contraception culture death dharma dhātus digestion dilemmas disorders doctor doșas duties elements factors family planning function Gandhi gene therapy genetic engineering goal guna healing health and disease Hindu bioethics Hindu ethics Hinduism human human cloning Human Genome Project Ibid Indian medicine individual kāma kapha karma knowledge living longevity Mahabharata mahābhūtas Manu means mental mind mokṣa moral mother nature niyoga notion old age organs parents patient person philosophic physical physician population practice prakṛti pregnancy present principle problems produce puruşa qualities Rasā Rasayana religious role Samhita Samkhya semen sexual social sperm spiritual subtle body suffering Suśruta Thou shalt tion tradition treatment truth understanding University Upanisad Vaidya values vāta Veda Vedic virtue woman women Yoga