Pregledni rad

Bioethics and Genetics: Medical Practice Between Eugenics and Iatrogenic Disease

Tonči Matulić ; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Sažetak

There is no doubt that modern eugenics was an important driving force in bioethics originating as a new discipline. The notion of modern genetics presupposes the existence of classical genetics. The crucial date separating classical from modern genetics is 1953. Having descended from biological research at the molecular level, it announced the introduction of a new epoch of natural science and the humanities. But it must also be noted that the rapid development of molecular biology created the conditions for a superseding of classical eugenics by modern eugenics. Firstly, classical eugenics was purged from unscientific and racist prejudices. Secondly, it was enriched with new sophisticated methods and techniques of genetic engineering. Thirdly, it renounced itself of its ideological past. But still its goals remained the same - artificial selection of human beings according to their hereditary characteristics in keeping with conformity of a onesided mathematical definition and notion of the quality of life. Furthermore, the application of classical or old medical ethics in clinical practice began to deal more and more with unsolvable difficulties. The clinical environment unveiled itself increasingly as something technological while ever less personalized. Such a state of affairs was the immediate cause for the emergence of bioethics. Bioethics as new medical ethics attempted and is still trying to protect the demarcation between the principles of medical ethics and the physician's practice in very technologically sophisticated clinical circumstances. Medical science under the influence of new technologies has become fragmentised into many disciplines and specializations. This fact has directly caused the disintegration of man as patient into his or her organic components affecting the vision that man is a whole, i.e. man is a person. Under such circumstances, there appear the so-called iatrogenic diseases. These types of diseases are caused by medicine. In brief, these few remarks on the present conditions in the field of biological and medical activities represent a general framework of the historical context of various medical, ethical, social and legal discussions concerning various hereditary diseases, including Down's Syndrome, and with regard to the possibilities of their prevention, diagnosis and therapy. This article brings forth some important historical, social and ethical changes in the field of medical ethics and bioethics.

Ključne riječi

culture; medicine; biology; genetics; eugenics; iatrogenic disease; bioethics

Hrčak ID:

24691

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/24691

Datum izdavanja:

7.9.2005.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 4.878 *