Self-sacrifice and Bioethics

Bioethics in developing countries: ethics of scarcity and sacrifice.

Contemporary issues such as euthanasia, surrogate motherhood, organ transplantation and gene therapy, which occupy the minds of ethicists in the industrialized countries are, for the moment, irrelevant in most developing countries. There, the ethics of scarcity, sacrifice, cross-cultural research, as well as the activities of multinational companies, are germane. In this article, only the ethic...

Self-control and Sacrifice 1 Running Head: SELF-CONTROL AND SACRIFICE Low Self-control Promotes the Willingness to Sacrifice in Close Relationships

While previous theories and research suggest that human behavior is automatically driven by selfish impulses (e.g., vengeance rather than forgiveness), the present research tested the hypothesis that, in close relationships, people’s impulsive inclination is to be pro-social and to sacrifice for their partner—to pursue the partner’s or the relationship’s interest at some costs for the self. Fou...

Self-sacrifice and self-destruction. A christian looks at suicide.

Preemptive defensive self-sacrifice by ant workers.

Worker insects altruistically sacrifice their own reproduction to rear nondescendant kin. This sacrifice reaches its most spectacular level in suicidal colony defense. Suicidal defense, such as when the sting of a honeybee worker embeds in a predator and then breaks off, is normally a facultative response. Here we describe the first example of preemptive self-sacrifice in nest defense. In the B...

Bioethics and self-governance: the lessons of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.

The following article analyzes the process of conception, elaboration, and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, and reflects on the lessons it might hold for public bioethics on the international level. The author was involved in the process at a variety of levels: he provided advice to the IBC on behalf of the President's Council of Bioethics; he served as the U...