| Abstract: | Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha is more forthrightly known in the social and political language. Yet, Gandhi himself said that his politics is but an expression of his religion, of his ethics. Ergo, Satyagraha, though more known to be used in the socio-political arena, is essentially ethical. As such, Satyagraha can therefore be also woven into the Bioethical fabric. For both the western and eastern frontiers of Bioethics to have a real, enriching, and empowering interphase or melding, they should also learn to primarily understand and discourse with each other. Ergo, this research is a means of integrating Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha into contemporary Bioethics. More specifically, this study on Gandhi's Satyagraha is a deliberate attempt of Eastern philosophy to weave into the fabric of the extant Western bioethical literature. There is no question that Bioethics in the western world, specifically in Europe and North America, has already achieved a certain robustness. So we can even say that it has in a sense already developed into a culture of its own, at least since its formal inception during the later part of the past century. Yet, though Bioethics was born in the western world, its ethical and epistemological foundations weren't something unique to the western world. Eastern/oriental cultures already had, definitely even before the ancient Greeks (as earliest representatives of western thinking), coherent and systematic notions about sickness, diseases, healing, handicaps, aging, mores, ethics and other related ideas used by Bioethics. However, because the contemporary medicine and science where Bioethics emerged are largely products of western civilization, so eastern or oriental thinking hasn't yet significantly informed Bioethics as western thinking does. Nonetheless, specially with the impetus given by factors like the eastern/oriental countries: a) gaining global geopolitical and economic clout; b) having their citizens continually migrating to the west; c) attaining higher levels of education; d) getting access into western science and technology (including the medical field); e) making breakthrough into the information highway of the internet, and the like, it was but inevitable that the proverbial east-meets-west phenomenon happened, and is still bound to grow more rapidly once it reaches the state of proper momentum. But before this state of proper momentum is reached, a lot of groundwork has to be done, maybe, more specially from the eastern/oriental side, or maybe, ideally from both sides. Satyagraha has several tenets. However, we shall only deal with the two most important ones, namely Satya and Ahimsa. Satya: according to Mahatma Gandhi, posits spirituality and centrality in one's life, is multi-faceted and what one has is but a glimpse of it. It should also be a product of consistent self-examen. It has also a certain sociality and should be something communicable to people. Ahimsa: is non-violence and the co-principle of Satya, and also means goodwill. It also means patience. It makes Satyagraha not passive but an active creative power. It implies courage and moral strength. It is non-discriminating and, though non-violent, it is conflict-born and can thus be conflict-spawning. |
