Odpowiedzialność w bioetyce

Abstract

Bioethics is a new philosophical discipline which integrates issues from many sectors of research in sciences, technologies and medicine. The central problem for bioethics is how to cope with the emerging problems in contemporary scientific and technologic progress with responsibility and understanding for the fundamental human values. This article is trying to evaluate two of many propositions on the function that responsibility should play in bioethics. The most important approach to bioethical research was given by Van Rensselear Potter and Hans Jonas. They both make use of the ethical category of responsibility on the level of a principle of action. Van Rensselear Potter applied that principle to his global ethics, seen as ethics of survival, where responsibility is to be considered as normative way for every human action connected with life and its future conditions. His concern centres mainly on formulation of some postulates, which bioethics should consider as the science of survival. But it is only Hans Jonas who provided theoretical elaboration to the principle of responsibility, with some practical applications. His ontological and metaphysical foundation of that principle let us see more profoundly and objectively the obligations to life as such, and especially to the life of the human being and of the future generations. While appreciating Jonas’ argumentation but also acknowledging its limits, as well as considering the bioethical inspirations provided by Van Rensselear Potter, we are focused in the last part of this paper on the elaboration of some general principles regarding the bioethical evaluation of human action. We also emphasise that grounding of the principle of responsibility should be based on the ontological personalism and the notion of responsibility as moral virtue. This way we avoid considering responsibility as only a question of rational calculation on consequences but put the whole effort to the accomplishment of fundamental characteristics of human virtual behaviour, in full respect of fundamental human values.