BIOETHICS
We have discussed about the ethical business and noted that companies want to create an ethical image by making investment in activities that not only deplete natured resources or minimize waste generation or preserve conserve forests but also move towards sustainability principles.
There is another angle to moral consideration of our attitude or company’s attitude towards biota i.e. trees, animals and crops, biodiversity and abiotic component of environment namely mountains, rivers, lakes, soil and such other elements of nature. This is further explained by taking a view that if we want human race to survive, we must respect and protect the biodiversity and other elements of nature. We may not be deriving a direct benefit from natural system and its component, yet we any attach existence value to them.
Further protection of endangered animal or plant species is a moral act. In other words. Extending human type rights to non-humans is moral some may disagree to this concept. There is a view that holds oceans, lakes, forest, wetlands and mountains having same value as the individual animals or plants. This means ecosystem as whole needs to be considered as moral or ethical value. This approach is referred to as a bioethical approach towards environment.
There is no doubt that world’s resources like energy, water, food are limited. As we see in food chain (see unit 2-3) organisms or living beings have no choice but to feed, graze or prey on another living system. Human beings, being part of this system cannot ignore implications of one system on another. We cannot ignore the responsibility of our actions on the other systems of environment – the other systems include both non-living components like air, water or land and the living components like plants, forests, fish and other animals. For these actions of ours we have to adopt a framework for an ethics, the bioethics. For example, if one nation or a society in its own interest ignores the depletion of resources, pollution or deforestation of another society in which people are suffering, because of environmental factors, it raises basic ethical issues. Usually, ethics has been dealing with humans and their actions, but now other organisms that can perceive pain and other environmental systems like degrading land, forests or other ecosystems, extinction of species or endangered species are being included. Bioethics is concerned with the realization of how the environmental issues other than those affecting only human beings are important.
Of course, when we discuss about the question of bioethics, we should not forget that there can be different view points and each view point has to be debated and accepted, rejected or left undecided. For example, when we talk about environmental protection and about sustainability principles, we cannot ignore the view point regarding concern for future generations. Some experts may have a view point that technology would have developed in future to take care of environmental problem, hence no need to worry about the future generations. This is an important ethical point where we have to consider whether resources would be enough for future generations to meet their growing needs and whether the interests of other living beings would be safeguarded. The ethical choice demands that due consideration must be kept in view for the interest of all the components of environmental systems.
Even for the present generation, it is important to know about the impact of our everyday actions on other systems-living and non-living and if we want to act responsibility we may come to conclusion that it may be difficult to keep an account of our everyday actions and their impact, but we could make our burden on mother earth as less as possible. We may like to consider that we should not put heavy demand on nature and we should not take more than we really need.
The upshot is that any kind of ethics cannot ignore the fact that exploitation of those materials or systems that may not bear any monetary value for human beings and a disregard for non-human world is not sustainable. In simple words, it means that we acknowledge that species, and ecosystems have their own identity and have a right to existence. Environmental resources are reservoirs on which our existence depends and for their existence we are responsible.
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