Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
These concerns have been joined by other Catholic authors and organ-
izations addressing issues in genetics. Debates over genetically modified
foods and the use of patents to inhibit the development of more nutri-
tious food for the Third World occasioned a report by an international
consortium of fifteen Catholic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
International Cooperation for Development and Security, Brussels
(CIDSE). The report advocates a socially responsible use of property and
technology, calling attention to “the poorest and most vulnerable
members of society,” and amplifying the moral range of its appeal by
referring to Gandhi as well as general notions of justice and human
rights.
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CIDSE describes international biopatenting law as biased toward the
interests of both the industrialized countries and companies big enough
to defend their investments at a tremendous legal cost. It calls on coun-
tries hurt by patenting laws to take advantage of exceptions built into
WTO regulations, and judges that “the global applications of the TRIPS
Agreement is in danger of imposing on poor societies and communities
an alien set of concepts of property in which their interests are far from
the main emphasis.”
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Reflected in this analysis are the Catholic tradi-
tion's concern for a public conception of the common good that can
operate internationally; its use of religious ideas to evoke solidarity and
a preferential option for the marginalized; the use of the principle of sub-
sidiarity both to urge legal and regulatory restraint of market activities
and to encourage the empowerment and independent initiative of sub-
ordinate social groups; and a commitment to social change born of its
conviction that reasonableness and cooperative action can and will
prevail over injustice.
Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism
Although Niebuhr never addressed genetics or bioethics, he was regarded
even in his own day as an incisive critic of politics and society, since he
took up current questions of war, class, racism, international relations,
and technology. Writing after the optimism of the Protestant “social
gospel” had been dashed by two world wars, Niebuhr eschewed “ideal-
istic” ethical theories in favor of “realism” about humanity's moral
prospects. As a Christian social ethicist, his operating premise was quite
