Overview
Edited by Denis Noble, and Jean-Didier Vincent, With contributions by György Áám, William Byne, H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr, Albin Eser, Anne Fagot-Largeault, Luc Ferry, Gilbert Hottois, Noëlle Lenoir, Alain Prochiantz, Hans Ruh, Kenneth J. Ryan, Hiroshi Yamashita.Bioethics is not a fad, a passing fashion. The recurrent debates it gives rise to are a reflection of the major concerns of modern societies. With the recognition of the extent of our powers and our responsibilities towards nature, the primacy of the respect of human rights is sometimes questioned as the defence of the rights of the living. Should not our societies find a balance between these two requirements?
In this context, physiology is a significant stake. It has been an essential element in the understanding of the living. It remains a determining tool for research. But today, for ethical reasons linked precisely to its capacity to focus on the specificity of the living, its methods are being questioned. By seeking to understand the mechanisms and the nature of life, are we condemned to be disrespectful of it?
The texts compiled in this book represent a few milestones in our thinking on these questions. They were presented at a meeting, 'Physiology and the Respect for Life', organized in Paris in September 1995, under the auspices of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) and UNESCO. In bringing together specialists - scientists, philosophers, jurists, theologians - from various horizons, cultures, languages and religions, it aimed to highlight different perspectives and points of view. Without claiming to be exhaustive, this volume seeks above all to encourage the exchange of ideas and to demonstrate that the world of physiology is ready to take its place in the public debate on its aims and methods.