The reading for this week was the Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). I want to first focus on the actual definition of Bioethics, which I deduced from the reading. Bioethics is a study of the moral and ethical responsibilities that all human beings have in all medical, scientific and research fields. This is the simple, elementary definition of bioethics, but reading through this declaration gave me a realization that it is much more involved and complex. One part of the realm of bioethics that interested me was the Aim presented in Article 2, part g, which stated “to safeguard and promote the interests of the present and future generations. Now the idea of safeguarding and promoting the interests of the present are expected, but the concept of preserving the future has only come up recently. Within the last 10 years, the preserving of the environment and of the world has been of utmost importance so that the generations after us can enjoy the faculties of this planet and the innovations we have brought into this world. For me, this created a whole new spectrum of bioethics because it broadened the reach of its importance.

Another aspect of Bioethics that surprised me in the Declaration was Article 13. This article basically is calling for a sort of worldwide unity and cooperation between all nations. It initiates another angle of equality socially and medically across the world for all people. Now due to many political, religious, and other numerous factors, many nations can not come to an agreement on many issues. Even within nations, such as ours, certain issues are divided almost right down the middle with two different sides, such as with abortion. I do not want to go on a tangent on the abortion issue, but I felt like this declaration does not hinder nor help either side of the issue. It was something that I was looking for as I read and found that through this document conclusion can be drawn for both pro-life and pro-choice sides. I noticed that the declaration did not want to make arguments or statements for certain controversial issues, but rather took an angle to provide a guideline to every nation and organization of how to proceed on protecting everyone’s rights and lives, but still allowing them to push for more innovations. With the coming election in this country I feel that bioethics must play an important issue, more so than it ever has in the past. We must take in consideration so much and I am not asking for an answer to this question, but just for everyone to think about, What candidate will help this country follow these guidelines as best as possible and is it even possible to follow every single one? These are just two questions that I thought about as I read this document.