Prabuddha Bharata

tance of att it udes. Dev oid of self ish mo tives and done with the gene ral good in
mind even ap par ently in ju ri ous ac tions have no moral re- perc uss ions. Self ish
mo tives can give even seem ingly al tru is tic ac tions a mor ally neg a- tive charge.
The jus ti f ca tion for clon ing and re lated is sues of bioethical con cern must
theref ore be sought not in the spec if ics of these pro cesses but in the mot ives
that imp el us to choose them. !t is up to the conc erned in di vid ua ls to be clear
about their mot ives and for so ci ety to e" erc ise con trol when the mot ives of its
mem - bers go astray. #n ac cu rate un der stand ing of the sci en - tifc facts is for
sure nec ess ary to clear mis - con cept ions and prej ud ices be fore one can ar -
rive at a sound eth i cal judge ment$ but deeper ethi c al iss ues may prove more int
ract ab le. !n ter na tional or ga ni %a tions li&e the '()S*+ have been hold ing
wide-rang ing con sul ta- tions to for mu late norms and pol i cies to regu - late biot
echn olo gy. Swami ,itatman andaj i-s pres ent at ion of the .indu view of eth ics
/the con clud ing por tion of which ap pears in this is - sue0 was a part of this pro
cess. There are also strict int ern at ional leg al norms /e"e mp lif ied by the
(uremberg *ode0 for con duct ing bi o - log i cal res earch. These aim to prev ent a
rep eat of the une thi cal and in hum an use of men and women as subj ects of bio l
ogi c al res earch in (a%i 1erm any. But there are few ins trum ents to reg u late the
e2 ui ta ble dis tri bu tion of the fruits of re search. Ther a peu tic cloning prom ises
a whole
range of rem ed ies for pres ently in cur able con - di tions. But whether these will
be availa ble to the vil lages around 3ayavati or the bushmen in #f rica and at what
cost is the big 2ues tion. # free-mar &et econ omy al lows few eth i cal chec&s on
prici ng and avail abil ity. !n soc i eti es where wel fare mea sures are in ad e 2uate
and bud get ary allocations for health in sub stan tial /as is the case in !n dia0 costly
and in ap pro pri- ate techn ol o gies can prove a big burd en. The pres ence of gross
socio-eco nomic dis par i ties can there fore of ten rend er plain bi o log i cal views
of eth ics re dun dant. !n fact un der such con di tions 4bi o log i cal ar gu ments
can triviali%e eth ics and dis tract our att ent ion from real moral is sues5 the ways in
which the ge netic po ten tial of hu mans borninto imp ov- er ished en vi ron ments
to day is stunted and thwarted-. #s 6eon )isenberg of .ar vard 3ed i cal School has
rightly ob served 4had we the moral com mit ment to pro vide ev ery child with
whatwe de sire for our own what a 7ow - eri ng of hu man &ind there wouldbe.-
8eferences 9. Shan&aracharya-s com men tary on Brihadaran- ya&a 'panishad
:.:.;. <. The *omp lete =or&s of Swami >ive&ananda ? vols. /*al cutta5 #dvaita
#shrama 9-@ 9?@?$ ? 9??A0 9B;. ;. Shan&aracharya-s com men tary on Brahma
Sutras ;.9.<<. :. Brahma Sutras ;.9.<:. C. #itareya 'panishad <.9.<. D.
Brihadaranya&a 'panishad ;.?.<@.:-C.
9A PB -3#8*. <BBC
Bioethics and *loning 9C9
The goal of all nat ure is freed om and freed om is to be att ained only by perf ect
uns elf shn ess$ eve ry thought word or deed that is un self sh ta&es us tow ards
the goal and as such is called moral. That def n it ion you will fnd holds good in
eve ry rel ig ion and eve ry syst em of eth- ics. ESwami >ive&ananda #ct only on
that ma"im /or princ ip le0 which you can at the same time will to bec ome a univ er-
sal law. E!mmanuel FantG.9A