Advancing Global Bioethics 9 Joseph Tham Chris Durante Alberto García Gómez Editors Religious Perspectives on Social Responsibility in Health Towards a Dialogical Approach Advancing Global Bioethics Volume 9 Series editors Henk A.M.J. ten Have Pittsburgh, USA Bert Gordijn Dublin, Ireland The book series Global Bioethics provides a forum for normative analysis of a vast range of important new issues in bioethics from a truly global perspective and with a cross-cultural approach. The issues covered by the series include among other things sponsorship of research and education, scientific misconduct and research integrity, exploitation of research participants in resource-poor settings, brain drain and migration of healthcare workers, organ trafficking and transplant tourism, indigenous medicine, biodiversity, commodification of human tissue, benefit sharing, bio-industry and food, malnutrition and hunger, human rights, and climate change. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10420 Joseph Tham • Chris Durante Alberto García Gómez Editors Religious Perspectives on Social Responsibility in Health Towards a Dialogical Approach Editors Joseph Tham Chris Durante School of Bioethics Saint Peter’s University Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum Jersey City, NJ, USA Rome, Italy Alberto García Gómez UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights Rome, Italy ISSN 2212-652X ISSN 2212-6538 (electronic) Advancing Global Bioethics ISBN 978-3-319-71848-4 ISBN 978-3-319-71849-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71849-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018933270 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Religious Perspectives on Social Responsibility in Health: Towards a Dialogical Approach The UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights (www.unescobiochair.org) organized a workshop on “Bioethics, Multiculturalism and Religion,” and the papers submitted here form the collection of this edited volume. This UNESCO Chair was established in 2009 with two Roman universities. It offers a university framework of reflection and study, providing information and fostering the application of bioethical principles in science, medicine and new tech- nologies based on the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. Through integral education, research and information, it seeks to contribute towards the recognition and promotion of a global and integral vision of bioethics, bringing to light universal values and principles as well as social and legal implications in relation to human rights. By creating a community of persons who are interested in these values, it seeks to promote cultural dialogue and encounters in a spirit of solidarity. v Preface UNESCO has played a leading role in bioethics within the UN system. Its unique multidimensional mandate in natural, social and human sciences, along with educa- tion, culture and human rights, places the organization in a strategic position to develop an ethical framework for bioethics and ethics of science and technology. Countries members of UNESCO have adopted the only three global normative instruments in bioethics, namely: • Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights (1997, endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 1998) • International Declaration on Human Genetic Data (2003) • Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005) In the field of bioethics, UNESCO has become, and for more than 20 years, the leading agency to develop not only a laboratory of ideas but also the mechanism to disseminate normative instruments and to implement them. It is still the case in many countries, and at a regional level, the lack of well-developed capacities to deal with bioethical issues; lack of expertise: centres and committees and the lack of appropriate legislation, guidelines and teaching programmes. This is why UNESCO has been devoted to support countries to establish and reinforce their bioethical infrastructure through activities aimed at the institutional and the professional dimensions. The first one is by establishing national bodies (such as National Bioethics Committees) that can advise the government on bioethi- cal issues. The second dimension is through education. The main projects are Assisting Bioethics Committees and Ethics Education Program. The most impor- tant features of the Ethics Education programme are the production of a unique global core curriculum in bioethics, the training of ethics teachers and the develop- ment of training material in bioethics for researchers, health-care personnel, judges, journalists, among others. UNESCO has also fostered the development of academic reflection, research and teaching activities in partnership with universities and academic institutions, mainly through the establishment of Chairs. There are around ten UNESCO Chairs in Bioethics around the world. The UNESCO Chair established at the Ateneo Pontificio vii viii Preface Regina Apostolorum and Università Europea di Roma has been focusing, for the past 8 years, in advancing the bioethical reflection in the context of multiculturalism and religion, as well as the promotion of bioethics through art. In so doing, it has constantly helped the interpretation and implementation of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights by opening cross-cultural and cross-religious debates on different articles of the Declaration and diverse bioethical issues, allow- ing the exploration of different ways of applying the principles in different contexts. This is a crucial task, as bioethical issues call for an inclusive and pluralistic approach. According to UNESCO’s Constitution, the activities in promoting science and international co-operation should serve as a channel to address the basic problems and needs of the world population, such as poverty and social development. In fact, the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights contains a global under- standing of bioethics, including social and environmental dimensions, along with the biomedical and technological ones. In the case of this particular workshop, Article 14 of the Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights was chosen, an article that fully underlines the social dimension of bioethics and the wide spectrum of actors responsible for health. By choosing this article, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics at the Ateneo Pontificio Regina Apostolorum and Università Europea di Roma “has provided a necessary space for reflection to address the dilemmas of resource allocation, global health, and social responsibil- ity” and “exploring the relatioship between Global Health and Social responsibility and their link to Global Bioethics” (García and Sotomayor 2018). Moreover, Article 14, Social Responsibility and Health, is paradigmatic as it includes the social dimension of bioethics as a part of the principles of this domain. It is a unique contribution to conceptualize and institutionalize global bioethics. It was largely discussed both by the independent experts of the International Bioethics Committee, the diverse regional consultations held during the process of the elabo- ration of the Declaration and the members of the Intergovernmental Committee on Bioethics. The discussions around it clearly showed the different approaches to bio- ethics; hence its inclusion is a significant step for the international community. During the drafting process, some members of the group underlined that the “social responsibility that derives from bioethics, demands that society deals with crucial issues to find solutions based on criteria of equity and justice” (Martínez-Palomo (2009). I would agree with Father Joseph Tham, in the introduction of this volume, that through the different papers and during the workshop, it was easy to perceive the reality of the debate, of the discourse and of the emotions in the interreligious dia- logue, with his call for a committed search of the commonalities and differences and his appreciation for the deep and sincere expression of each tradition during the presentations and discussions. Preface ix Some of the many interesting topics addressed during the workshop and that the reader can enjoy in detail in each of the chapters are as follows: Discussions around the definition of health: What is it? What are its different dimensions? How to embrace a wide definition and avoid at the same time a vague concept. Some of the religious perspectives discussed are as follows: “Who is the other?” To whom is the obligation to provide with health care, that is, to whom are we obliged, both the national governments and the international community? What is the difference between moral and legal obligation and charity and solidarity, particularly in social responsibility and heath care, to humanity? To national societies? To families? Does this social responsi- bility be thought as a legal or as a moral obligation? To everybody at the same level? How is minimum defined and how is it distributed? Which is the best approach to the right of health? International? Egalitarian? Both? Realistic, feasible vs idealistic? Is this a question of equality of equality of what? There are very interesting considerations about the role of faith in ethics and law; in a secular and globalized context, human rights is the framework of the UN system in general, and the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights is the first global normative document that specifically links bioethics and human rights. Hence, one of the very interesting aspects of some of the papers is that they allow to continue and to enrich the dialogue and reflection between human rights and religion. Already the consultations held during the process of drafting the Declaration involved meetings and inputs from leaders of many religious traditions. However, as mentioned above, this dialogue and reflection about the implementa- tion of the principles, and their links with human rights, is a living process. In hand with the authors, the reader will have the opportunity to dig deeper into the differences and commonalities among various religious perspectives, moreover and very interestingly interreligious differences. In some cases more than in others, “tensions arising from the contemporary versions of a religious tradition while con- fronting modernity, between religious credence and pragmatic concerns, between theological and juridical approaches” (Tham 2018). Learning about the differences within the same religion can not only be enrich- ing, but as Guessous states: “the debate must continue among and between cultures and religions. Involving religious scholars and thinkers is necessary and beneficial for a democratic discussion and for the promotion of the values of Human Dignity, Equality, Justice, Autonomy, Responsibility and Solidarity for the wellbeing and peace of all Humans” (Guesssous Nouzha 2018). I wish you all an interesting reading. UNESCO Dafna Feinholz Paris, France x Preface References García, A.R., and C. Sotomayor. 2018. Chapter 20: Convergence and cooperation in social respon- sibility in Health. In Religious perspectives on social responsibility in health, ed. Joseph Tham, Chris Durante, Alberto García, 177–186. Cham: Springer. Guessous, Nouzha. 2018. Chapter 15: Social responsibility in health. A contextualized lecture of Islamic spirit and cultures. In Religious perspectives on social responsibility in health, ed. Joseph Tham, Chris Durante, Alberto García, 133–140. Cham: Springer. Martínez-Palomo, A. 2009. Article 14: Social Responsibility and Health. In The UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. Background, principles and application, ed. Ten Have H, Jean M.S, 219–230. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. For a full description of the develop- ment of all the principles of the Declaration, refer to this publication. Tham, J. 2018. Introduction. In Religious perspectives on social responsibility in health, ed. Joseph Tham, Chris Durante, Alberto García, 1–10. Cham: Springer.