Author : Sumathipala, Athula and Siribaddana, Sisira
Publisher: Vijitha Yapa Publications
Place of Publish: Sri Lanka, Colombo
Year: 2003
Page Numbers: 63
Acc. No: 207
Class No: 610 SUM-SL
Category: Books & Reports
Subjects: Health
Type of Resource: Monograph
Languages: English
ISBN: 955-8095-27-3
The book is about ethics, which is a very difficult subject. Ethics is concerned with what is right and what is wrong. As soon as we try to tell the difference between right and wrong, disagreement begins. There are ethical absolutists and ethical relativists. The absolutists say that there are moral rules thatare binding on all human beings (e.g. don,t kill babies). The relativists say that there are no such rules and point to societies where infanticide, especially female infanticide, has been and is being practiced. The authors have set out what they think are the rules that ought to guide bio-medical and genetic researchers. They assert that Sri Lankan society is heavily influenced by Buddhist and Hindu philosophies. They have, however, not attempted to extract from these philosophies any specific contribution to solidify or enrich their ethical guidelines. Such a registry is for research into genetic disorders. Perhaps even more important, such a registry could provide clues to the understanding of human behaviour.