Bio-Ethics and Medical Science in Jaina Texts

By Dr. Meenal Katarnikar

 

Introduction

The ethical system contains

• Beliefs about the nature of man,
• Beliefs about ideals, about what is good or desirable or worthy of pursuit for its own sake,
• Rules laying down what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, and
• Motives that incline us to choose the right or wrong course.

The issues arising about what is good, desirable or worthy of pursuit, the standard of goodness and so, arising out of the development of biomedical sciences are the main subject of bio-ethics. And very specifically, the response of Jainism to these bio-ethical issues is the subject matter of present lecture.

It is a matter of debate whether ethics, either pure or applied, should be religion-free or is it always based on religious or metaphysical doctrines. The polemics in this context is relevant even today, because the present global society is divided in at least two groups, viz. religious and a–religious. And whenever any ethical issue related to any sphere of life arises, the religious authorities or advocates of religious ethics attempt to find out the solutions on the basis of the teachings of religion. For example, due to the advancements in medical sciences, society is availed of the treatments life artificial womb, test-tube-baby or even gene therapy. No doubt theses issues give rise to ethical questions. However, whether the response to these questions should be from a religious group or from a neutral group essentially depends on the mind-set of people living in society. Frequently it is found that religious group responds to these issues on the basis of certain ideas of merit and sin, good and bad as determined by the religious doctrines. And the response of Jainism to these issues is such a type of response. Keeping at background the Jaina ideals of non-violence, non-collectivism and ascetic life, Jainism responds to the bio-ethical issues.

In this lecture, the case study of following bio-ethical issues will be done, not all the issues will be discussed. The reason for being selective is that the focus of the lecture is on Jaina response to bio-ethical issues and not the elaborate description and discussion of bio-ethical issues. The issues for present lecture are:

1. Abortion
2. Artificial womb
3. Contraception
4. Euthanasia
5. Organ donation

The changing set of values, varied ideas of pleasure and enjoyment, individual freedom, social status etc. have given rise to a different theorization of human life and consequently the issues related to span of human life, unwanted birth or craving for baby etc. have arisen.

1. Abortion

In the light of the emphasis on absolute non-violence, Jainism repudiates and prohibits abortion regardless of reasons. The Jaina explanation of this approach of non-violence could be as follows:

• As the possibility of new birth exists, killing that life is high level of violence and cannot be justified under any reason.
• If the intention of abortion is to get rid of the female child, Jainism will respond on the backdrop of equality of all life, and condemn the killing of a female child.
• If possibility of defective delivery is the reason of abortion, Jainism will take into account the theory of karma and will argue that as the child will have to suffer because of his-her own past karmas, child will live or die of natural causes and hence deliberate killing of a child is not justified.
• Jainism will also support saving the pre-maturely delivered babies at any cost even though there is every possibility that such a child does grow with disabilities from slow learning to overt physical disabilities.
• If the reason of abortion is social, e.g. poverty or getting rid of un-wanted or illegal child, Jainism will respond with the support of two principles of non-violence and doctrine of karma and argue that as the child has to bear the fruits of past karmas and hence aborting the child will be a sin of interfering with other karma.

2. Artificial Womb

This device is adopted when the natural pregnancy is not possible due to the organic defects either in male or female. In-vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood are some ways that can be adopted when the wife in the couple cannot give birth to a child in a natural way. For the couple, which is craving for a child and cannot get it naturally, these medical inventions are like a boon. It would be interesting to see what Jainism would think about this.

First of all, arguing on the basis of the theory of karma, Jainism will entirely repudiate the idea of artificial procreation. It will point out that due to the past karmas of either wife or husband or both of them, natural pregnancy is not possible and hence the couple should accept it as their destiny.

Secondly, it will also oppose using either eggs or sperms or a womb of any other mother as a commodity for anyone’s selfish purpose.

3. Contraception

The idea of contraception, specifically is to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, and in general to control the population.

Jainism might see the use of contraceptives as redundant in the light of the vow of celibacy. According to the fourth vow, Monks and Nuns are supposed to control their sexual passions completely, while householder males and females are supposed to control the same to a certain extent. For example, sexual relation with anyone other than spouse, or sexual relations when there is no motive for a child etc. is prohibited by Jainism. In this context, a true follower of Jainism will not require any contraceptive as he/she would have been already controlling the sexual passions. Jainism will prefer one’s own decision to control the passion rather than any external means to fulfil that passion without bearing the results of the same.

4. Euthanasia

Euthanasia means voluntary death. Specifically, when a person is suffering from some incurable disease, there being no possibility of his/her living, for long and moreover the same person is either undergoing enormous quantity of physical pain or is in no position to give any response to any stimuli, a doctor may help this person, with either the permission of that person or a family member, to die peacefully. The issue of euthanasia is a highly discussed and debated bio-ethical issue and in the religion-neutral field like medical science also there is no unanimity about the sanction or opposition to voluntary death.

Jainism definitely rules out any possibility of giving any sanction to euthanasia for at least two reasons:

• Birth and death of a person is determined by his/her previous karmas, and hence no artificial means or deliberate attempt could be employed for either preparing or postponing the death. 
   
• No living being has right to take away the life of any other being for any reason whatsoever. 
   

  In Jaina tradition, there is a vow called Sallekhana which is always mistakenly, compared with euthanasia. Sallekhana means spiritual death and is has no connection with biomedical progress, its discussion here would be inappropriate.

5. Organ-Donation / Transplant

If organ donation / transplant is done at the cost of other life or exploitation of other life, Jainism does not approve it even though it is helpful to some other jiva. In case of voluntary donating of the organ, e.g. kidney – transplant from mother to child or vice versa; Jainism should not have any problem as the donor has not taken the decision out of any external force or compulsion or helplessness.

This list can be extended as the bio-medical sciences have done magnificent progress even to the extent of cloning. But a few cases are sufficient to draw inferences about the Jaina position regarding bio-ethical issues.

Jainism would consider all these issues from purely religious perspectives. The evaluations of any of the above problems will be done in the measurement of sin and merit, following or transgressing the vows, especially the vow of non-violence and some such religious norm. But while maintaining the noble ethical and spiritual values, the social aspect of these issues has been ignored and therefore, Jaina position about bio-ethical issues appears to be highly spiritual and less social.

The Morality and Ethics in Jainism

This article by Lysianassa explores morality and ethics in the Jain religion

The religion of Jainism is followed by an estimated 20 million devotees. Like Buddhism, it arose in the sixth century BCE, but unlike Buddhism, it did not have an dynamic missionary spirit. Its contentment lies in the quiet life. It originated in Benares, India, and spread westward and northward.

Jainism was founded by a series of 24 enlightened thinkers, named Tirthankaras, starting with Parshva and ending with Mahavira, who lived in the 4th or 5th century BCE (Chappell, p.214). The Acaranga Sutra, the earliest known Jaina text, describes a world inundated with life, and narrates the story of Mahavira’s life. Mahavira, in this Sutra, arrange a sequence of rules to aid one along the path to enlightenment.

These rules were intended to lessen and eradicate karma through a vigilant observance of nonviolent conduct. These rules include precise commands for when, what and how to eat; when and how to travel; where and when to defecate; and from whom to accept food, as well as lists of a variety of activities, including attending wedding ceremonies, to be avoided.

The philosopher Umasvati, and the author of the Tattvartha Sutra, who lived in the second or third century CE, developed a cosmological structure that is acknowledged by both the foremost branches of Jainism, the Digambaras and the Svetamabaras. It endeavours to clarify the place of the human being in a grand incessant reality.

According to Umasvati's Tattvartha Sutra, there are 8,400,000 different varieties of life. These ‘lifes’ are all part of a beginningless round of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Each living being accommodates a life force or ‘jiva’ that inhabits and enlivens the host environment. When the body dies, “the jiva seeks out a new site depending upon the proclivities of karma generated and accrued during the previous lifetime. Depending upon one's actions, one can either ascend to a heavenly realm, take rebirth as a human, animal, elemental, or microbial form, or descend into one of the hells as a suffering human being or a particular animal, depending upon the offense committed” (Chappell, p.209).

Jainism, in many ways, is a realistic religion. It not only holds that reality is pluralistic, but also that reality is many-faced. In order to maintain this stance Jainism develops a logic of sevenfold predication. The progress of this logic, consecutively, depends predominantly on the notion of avaktavya (the unspeakable). The Jaina’s conjecture that all the countless living beings, from a speck of dirt or a drop of water, to animals and humans themselves, have one commonality - the capability for tangible understanding.

According to the scholar Mysore Hiriyanna, the concept of avaktavya "must be expressible as neither”. This means that if we refute both existence and non-existence, if we counteract the two dissimilar elements of being and non-being together, the thing confuses all explanation. It becomes beyond description i.e. neither real nor unreal (Tripathi, p.187).

The philosophy, rituals, values, and customs of Jainism centre around the aspiration to be freed from the cycle of rebirth .The Jaina faith believes in karma and reincarnation; that each person beginninglessly lives one life after another, and will do so continuously unless he becomes enlightened. Karma canon explains that one unavoidably receives the value or demerit due; right or wrong actions not impartially done yield weal or woe, and no one can elude their due remuneration. Entrenched in these canons is a justice obligation; the receiver of the remuneration must be the doer of the action for which recompense comes - she, and not another.

Karma decides the path of one's incarnation. Negative karma causes a downhill movement, both in this current cycle of birth and death and in future births. Positive karma liberates the negative, obligatory merits of karma and allows for a rise to higher realms, either as a more ethically pure human being or as a god or goddess. Eventually, the Jaina path of purification through its many firm ethical teaching may end in joining the realm of the perfected ones, the siddhas. These enlightened souls have released themselves from all karma, principally due to their dedication to total harmlessness (ahimsa), and “dwell in a state of eternal consciousness, energy, omniscience, and bliss” (Chappell, p.210 – 211).

A text from the Jainism doctrine, Jaina Sutras, states; “Those who do not know all things by kevala (knowledge), but who being ignorant teach a law (of their own), are lost themselves, and work the ruin of others in this dreadful, boundless Cycle of Births. Those who know all things by the full Kevala knowledge, and who are practicing meditation and teach the whole law, are themselves saved and save other” (Yandell, p.29).

The most desirable alteration- namely, enlightenment- neither transforms the character of the self or person or jiva (the soul), nor does it eliminate his ability for consciousness. After the soul is free, there remains perfect right-belief, perfect right-knowledge, perfect perception and the state of having achieved all. The soul has the nature of knowledge, and the understanding of this nature is Nirvana; therefore, one who is desirous of Nirvana must meditate on self-knowledge.

Speaking in a general way, the Jaina will say that the (beginninglessly) tainted state of the soul guides it to its incessant reincarnation in a variety of states. Continuation in such condition, branded by desire, entails actions which attract karmic matter; this matter in turn plays a role in the soul's additional corruption, therefore to further incarnation. Consequently we have the essential practice through which one is held in the sequence of transmigration (samsara) (Yandell, p.23 – 24).

The Jaina believe that through respect for life in all its forms, including microorganisms and the elements, one can ascend to a elevated state of spiritual understanding.

Bibliography:

Chappell, Christopher Key (2001) The Living Cosmos of Jainism: A Traditional Science Grounded in Environmental Ethics, Daedalus, The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts and Science.

Tripathi, R. K. (1968) The Concept of Avaktavya in Jainism, Philosophy East and West, University of Hawai’i Press.

Yandell, Keith (1997) Persons (Real and Alleged) in Enlightenment Traditions: A Partial Look at Jainism and Buddhism, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Springer.