Bioethics

In class, we talked about the fact that religion and science have often and still do come into conflict. However, that may be stating things too simplistically. Throughout history, the church has tried to suppress scientific theories that disagree or challenge the church’s authority and power. However, in today’s world it is not religion that interacts with science, but more ethics.
Bioethics is the idea that certain research projects, theories, and inventions must be judged on an ethical basis. During our class discussion, people spoke out against religious interference, saying that scientist should have the freedom to research what they want to. Unfortunately, that is a dangerous statement to make. Throughout history, there have been political, religious, and societal views that have impacted humanity’s perception of everything including science.
Science has occasionally been used negatively in order to promote political views or actions. Ethics and review boards are necessary in order to ensure that scientists are not doing research that does or would harm others. Without rules or control, there is nothing to prevent another Dr. Mengele from occurring.
Review boards are important because they allow regulations to be put in place for research to be ethical. Unfortunately, there are different views on what exactly ethical implies. Bioethics is a complicated topic, because in today’s world there are many controversial issues, such as stem cell research, which cause people to question the nature of ethics.