In defense of the vulnerable in medicine and the life sciences

Abstract

International declarations on human dignity and human rights are recalled, such as United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005). Instances of violations of such rights in the areas of medicine and life sciences are denounced, such as trade in living human organs, the “reproductive technology industry”, legalized killing of human embryos and assisted suicide. The fact that such rights are currently granted or suppressed by people who have the political power to do so is shown as the cause for such violations, and the need to acknowledge a transcendent source of human dignity and rights is proposed, by which the acceptance of dogmatic teachings of any particular religion is not implied, but rather the acknowledgment, through natural reason, of a Creator who has bestowed worth, dignity and meaning on human beings.