Religious foundations of medical ethics
Abstract
In this paper, the author attempts to determine the contribution of religion to the emergence of medicine and development of medical ethics. The emergence of medical science in Western and Eastern cultures is explained by means of mythology. The morality of Indian physicians is determined by the Hinduistic concept of karma and the eightfold path of Buddhism, whereas the morality of Chinese physicians is conditioned by the ethics of Confucianism and Daoism. The influence of the Abrahamic religions on the practice of medieval medicine is significant. With the coming of the New Age, medicine has been professionalised and medical ethics secularized. Although some antagonism has been discovered between religion and medicine, they still overlap at certain places. The author finds that the contribution of theology to the emergence of bioethics is unjustly marginalised. The inquiry into the relationship between religion and medicine is constructive for medical ethics in terms of professional education, scientific research, and clinical practice.
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