i LOVE u..NATURE

Love of ourselves, love of others and love of nature seem to be common threads linking all of humanity with each other and within the environment. In this paper I wish to consider bioethics in terms of our relationships with other living organisms and the environment, life or the “bios”. There is a need for more consideration of the bioethical questions in how we relate to the environment, including agriculture and food issues. In terms of medical ethics, the relationship of human beings to the environment also relates very strongly and intricately with the psycho-somatic health of human beings.

The need for bioethics is being re-emphasized internationally, in UN Declarations, in statements of scientists and teachers, in the views of ordinary people, and as a response to the decay in moral fabric of societies as seemingly distant as Eskimos and Tamils. We are left with the challenge to apply love to cases where we have disputes and balancing of options, be it abortion of the handicapped fetus or using surrogate mothers to grow up clones. Love demands human rights protection, from love of life, balanced by the only ultimate source of reconciliation between countries, respect and love.

If we ask people whether they value the environment, or whether it has a special property, almost everyone anywhere will agree. However, despite nice words and sentiments, the lack of practical concern shown for the environment suggests that environmental protection is not a dominating motivation in peoples lives or bioethic of behaviour. This inconsistency between words and actions has long been discussed in all cultures of the world, and is one of the reasons why social organization and laws have evolved to protect others against the failures resultant from the exercising of individual decision-making power.