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The Thai Situation in Bioethics

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The Thai Situation in Bioethics. Soraj Hongladarom ... new topic for Thai people. ... As a Buddhist country, Thai people typically turns to Buddhism ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Thai Situation in Bioethics


1
The Thai Situation in Bioethics
  • Soraj Hongladarom
  • Department of Philosophy
  • Chulalongkorn University

2
Presented at the International Conference on
Dialogue and Promotion of Bioethics in Asia,
Manila Diamond Hotel, The Philippines, 14-16
October, 2002
3
Awareness and Understanding
  • Bioethics is a new topic for Thai people.
  • The level of awareness and understanding
    naturally varies with the level of education,
    which means that it is rather unsatisfactory.

4
Popular Perception
  • Nonetheless, there have been many cases of
    popular perception of the issue.
  • One way to gauge a peoples attitude toward
    social issue is through the arts.
  • One example is the novel, Amata, by Wimon
    Sainimnuan.

5
Most Prominent Issues and Controversies
  • Amata deals with human cloning.
  • It features the conflict between Buddhism and
    egoistic desires found in the attempt to clone
    oneself.
  • Buddhism is aligned with the resistance of
    globalization, while cloning is with the other
    side.

6
GMOs
  • Another hard fought area concerns genetically
    modified organisms.
  • Many NGOs are active in campaigning against the
    use of products made of GMOs.
  • They charge the transnational companies of
    double standard.

7
National Institutions
  • Regulatory bodies
  • Ministry of Agriculture
  • National Research Council
  • However, regulation is still rather weak.
  • Promotional bodies
  • National Science and Technology Development
    Agency (NSTDA)
  • National Center for Genetic Engineering and
    Biotechnology (BIOTEC)

8
Civic Groups
  • BioThai
  • Chief NGO campaigning against GMOs and other
    technologies perceived to be harmful.
  • Thailand Environment Institute
  • Chief NGO for the environment, mostly conducing
    research and studies.

9
Research Institutions
  • Universities
  • Research on ethical and social implications of
    biotechnology is still at the beginning.
  • Center for the Study of Science, Technology, and
    Society, Chulalongkorn University
  • Other Research Institutes

10
Current Status Research on Human Subject
  • Various universities have ethical review boards.
  • Funding agencies also have requirements meeting
    international standards.
  • Popular perception is not a big issue.

11
Organ Transplantation
  • Apart from the guidelines set up by the IRBs,
    this is not a big issue in Thailand.
  • People appears to be concerned more with the
    purpose for which organ transplantation is done
    rather than the rightness or wrongness of the act
    per se.

12
Abortion
  • This is a no no.
  • Thai law allows abortion in only three cases
  • rape
  • fetus endangering mothers life
  • fetus severely handicapped
  • Popular perception is very much against it.
  • But still there are hundreds of thousands of
    cases each year.

13
Assisted Reproduction
  • This is also not a big issue.
  • What people are concerned is the cost of doing
    so, which allows only the rich to have it while
    the poor are excluded.

14
Embryo Research
  • Buddhism teaches that life begins with
    conception.
  • Hence many are against the use of embryos for
    other purposes. (This is in accordance with the
    dictum Never use a human being as a means.)

15
Euthanasia
  • Buddhism teaches that deliberately taking life is
    wrongful.
  • But it also recognizes that to be worth living is
    to be able to function independently and that
    death is a natural part of life which is not be
    avoided at all costs.

16
HIV/AIDS
  • Intensive campaigns have made Thailand one of the
    most advanced countries in terms of recognition
    of the dignity of AIDS victims as well as being
    open about the problems.
  • AIDS patients are viewed more as victims rather
    than moral transgressors.

17
Education in Bioethics
  • Chulalongkorn University does not have a separate
    course of instruction in bioethics.
  • Medical faculty has its own ?medical ethics?
    course, which focuses more on code of conduct.
  • Philosophy department traditionally focuses on
    theory of ethics.
  • But this is changing.

18
GMO Food
  • This is a very big controversy, as I have said
    before.
  • It seems to many that the issue does not concern
    scientific risks as much as business interests of
    the transnational corporations and the livelihood
    of Third world farmers.

19
Genetic Research
  • As with organ transplantation, this is not a big
    issue in Thailand.
  • However, institutional review boards do have a
    guideline on this issue following internationally
    accepted standard.

20
Buddhism
  • As a Buddhist country, Thai people typically
    turns to Buddhism when faced with bioethical
    dilemmas.
  • However, Buddhism does not have a specific set of
    answers one has to interpret the teaching in
    order to find solutions.
  • Buddhism is more concerned with the motifs of
    doing the act rather than the act itself.
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