Advancing dialogue and reflection on bioethical issues from diverse cultural and religious traditions has been one of the most successful projects undertaken by the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights in the area of bioethics, multiculturalism and religion. Since 2009, this program has flourished over the years and has recently continued with the organization of the Fifth International Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion Workshop and Conference, hosted by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in November of 2016.
In this edition of the workshop, the chosen topic of “Bioethical Challenges in Neurogenomics” is highly technical. At the same time, it touches on very fundamental questions addressed by most of the religious and philosophical traditions, such as the ones mentioned by Ellen Zhang: “What is consciousness? How does the human mind function and what is its impact on our sense of being? How does consciousness or mind determine our sense of self and cognitive understanding of the world of experience?”
This exciting and important endeavor becomes more challenging as the topics identified for the workshop are related to cutting-edge technologies, such as those used in neurological and genetic research, therapy and enhancement techniques. For such reflections, a deep understanding of the technologies is required, along with the knowledge of the religious theory of the traditions.
This workshop provided the participants with an opportunity to reflect more deeply on perpetually reoccurring questions regarding the nature of humanity itself – considering new scientific possibilities, such as the ability to intervene in the genomic makeup of human persons or even irreversibly alter or influence future generations, that were thought impossible in the past. Offering a Jewish perspective, Jonathan Crane considers that the urgency of reflecting on these topics stems from the fact that “today’s incredible technological prowess to cut and paste genetic material empowers humans with the potential to refashion human bodies.” The scientific community now possesses the knowledge, skill, expertise and technology to alter the biological composition of human persons. Hence, one of the most pressing ethical questions we must ask is, “Why would we venture to refashion humans in such a manner?” We must question the values and motives behind such technological developments and how they may affect our humanity if scientific developments are to proceed responsibly. According to Alberto Carrara, who represented a Catholic point of view, we must be careful to avoid adopting the worldview whose “reductionist interpretations of neuroscientific results challenge notions of free will, responsibility, personhood and the self which are essential for western culture and society.”
In the dialogue between the Jewish and the Catholic perspectives by Jonathan Crane, David Heyd and Laura Palazzani, Heyd raises another recurrent and relevant question: “Is humanity playing God? Are humans becoming a creator, not a co-creator?” Should human beings transform nature with their acts? With the use of science and technology? Is there any justification for such an intervention? What are the limits of such interventions? Both traditions can justify interventions if they seek to cure maladies, yet, not for the sole purpose of enhancement because they understand the latter as a desire for a divine-like perfection that unnecessarily and irrevocably transforms human nature. At the same time, the differentiation between health and sickness is not that clear. The definition of health and disease is different in both traditions. As Crane, Heyd and Palazzani rightly point out, the definition of health has a very subjective and cultural component. So, where do we draw the line between treatment and enhancement, between improvement of the human condition and enhancement? Crane believes that the “difference between disease and health, as well as between therapy and enhancement, is not one of kind but of degree.” For Palazzani, “there is a similar perspective in the Jewish and the Christian reflection, in the promotion of the virtue of caution.” Moreover, when it comes to gene editing, despite the differences between the Jewish and the Christian traditions regarding the status of the human embryo, both traditions arrive at similar conclusions, such as the ethical dubiousness of altering human nature for enhancement purposes, and not for medical treatment.1
Other participants also alluded to the need for some regulations of new developments in genetics and offered insights into ways in which we can conceptualize issues related to neuroscience and genetics that are not entirely reliant on Western paradigms of thought. For instance, Zhang suggested that the Buddhist perspective may offer a useful and exciting approach to neuroscience and genomics. The reason is that this religion “has a long history studying correlations between sense-datum and perception, consciousness and cognition, and mind-body experience that aim at understanding of how we think, feel and act, as well as the possibility to transform how we think, feel and act via meditative process.”
Readers of this volume might be interested in reading some of the UNESCO materials that address similar themes and subjects, such as the reports of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) about genetics and genomics, notably, the last one: the “Report of the IBC on Updating its Reflection on the Human Genome and Human Rights.” In this report, the IBC addresses the advancements in human genetics and biomedicine: its ethical challenges and the institutional and transnational framework of genetic research (including germline modification). The report provides ethical reflection and some concrete suggestions for regulation in specific areas of application, such as direct-to-consumer (DTC) tests and non-health-care-related analysis, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), and emerging techniques for engineering gametes and editing the human genome.
As a final word, it is worth mentioning how refreshing it is to continually find commonalities among different religions, as well as differences within the same traditions. That is one of the many reasons why the International Workshops organized by the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights and this book are a source of intellectual enrichment and learning.