Transcript The Thai Situation in Bioethics

The Thai Situation in Bioethics
Soraj Hongladarom
Department of Philosophy
Chulalongkorn University
Presented at the International Conference on Dialogue and Promotion of
Bioethics in Asia, Manila Diamond Hotel, The Philippines, 14-16 October,
2002
Awareness and Understanding
Bioethics is a new topic for Thai people.
 The level of awareness and understanding
naturally varies with the level of education,
which means that it is rather unsatisfactory.

Popular Perception
Nonetheless, there have been many cases of
popular perception of the issue.
 One way to gauge a people’s attitude toward
social issue is through the arts.
 One example is the novel, Amata, by Wimon
Sainimnuan.

Most Prominent Issues and
Controversies
Amata deals with human cloning.
 It features the conflict between Buddhism and
egoistic desires found in the attempt to clone
oneself.
 Buddhism is aligned with the resistance of
globalization, while cloning is with the other
side.

GMOs
Another hard fought area concerns genetically
modified organisms.
 Many NGO’s are active in campaigning against
the use of products made of GMO’s.
 They charge the transnational companies of
‘double standard.’

National Institutions

Regulatory bodies:
- Ministry of Agriculture
- National Research Council
However, regulation is still rather weak.
 Promotional bodies:

- National Science and Technology Development Agency
(NSTDA)
- National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
(BIOTEC)
Civic Groups

BioThai
- Chief NGO campaigning against GMOs and other
technologies perceived to be harmful.

Thailand Environment Institute
- Chief NGO for the environment, mostly conducing
research and studies.
Research Institutions

Universities
- Research on ethical and social implications of
biotechnology is still at the beginning.
- Center for the Study of Science, Technology, and
Society, Chulalongkorn University

Other Research Institutes
Current Status: Research on
Human Subject
Various universities have ethical review boards.
 Funding agencies also have requirements
meeting international standards.
 Popular perception is not a big issue.

Organ Transplantation
Apart from the guidelines set up by the IRBs,
this is not a big issue in Thailand.
 People appears to be concerned more with the
purpose for which organ transplantation is done
rather than the rightness or wrongness of the act
per se.

Abortion
This is a no no.
 Thai law allows abortion in only three cases:

- rape
- fetus endangering mother’s life
- fetus severely handicapped
Popular perception is very much against it.
 But still there are hundreds of thousands of
cases each year.

Assisted Reproduction
This is also not a big issue.
 What people are concerned is the cost of doing
so, which allows only the rich to have it while
the poor are excluded.

Embryo Research
Buddhism teaches that life begins with
conception.
 Hence many are against the use of embryos for
other purposes. (This is in accordance with the
dictum: Never use a human being as a means.)

Euthanasia
Buddhism teaches that deliberately taking life is
wrongful.
 But it also recognizes that to be worth living is
to be able to function independently and that
death is a natural part of life which is not be
avoided at all costs.

HIV/AIDS
Intensive campaigns have made Thailand one of
the most advanced countries in terms of
recognition of the dignity of AIDS victims as
well as being open about the problems.
 AIDS patients are viewed more as victims
rather than moral transgressors.

Education in Bioethics
Chulalongkorn University does not have a
separate course of instruction in bioethics.
 Medical faculty has its own ิmedical ethicsี
course, which focuses more on code of conduct.
 Philosophy department traditionally focuses on
theory of ethics.
 But this is changing.

GMO Food
This is a very big controversy, as I have said
before.
 It seems to many that the issue does not concern
scientific risks as much as business interests of
the transnational corporations and the livelihood
of Third world farmers.

Genetic Research
As with organ transplantation, this is not a big
issue in Thailand.
 However, institutional review boards do have a
guideline on this issue following internationally
accepted standard.

Buddhism
As a Buddhist country, Thai people typically
turns to Buddhism when faced with bioethical
dilemmas.
 However, Buddhism does not have a specific set
of answers; one has to interpret the teaching in
order to find solutions.
 Buddhism is more concerned with the motifs of
doing the act rather than the act itself.
