INTERRELIGIOUS BIOETHICS: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Interreligious bioethics examines the ethical issues arising from the applications of biotechnology and genetic engineering at the beginning, maintenance, and prolongation of human life through the prism of multiple religious traditions and perceptions. It also examines issues concerning the natural environment, as well as the living beings that inhabit it. Specifically, interreligious bioethics tries to identify points of convergence and possible compromises among different religious traditions on bioethical questions, such as abortions, artificial fertilization, surrogate motherhood, experiments on humans, and animals, the protection of the natural environment, and the cremation of the dead. In this context, it seeks to enhance understanding and cooperation between different religions on bioethical issues, promoting mutual respect and understanding. Its importance has grown due to globalization and the increasing interdependence between societies, as well as due to the rapid developments in medicine and biotechnology that pose new ethical questions. In this spirit, the present article refers on the one hand to the value of interreligious bioethics in contemporary multicultural societies and on the other hand examines the challenges and prospects that exist, aiming at the creation of an Interreligious Committee on Bioethics.