Bioethics
Online ISSN : 2189-695X
Print ISSN : 1343-4063
ISSN-L : 1343-4063
Bioethics against "War and Terrorism" : My experience in Vietnam by Narrative Approach(Symposium-The 18th Annual Meeting (2006))
Rihito KIMURA
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2007 Volume 17 Issue 1 Pages 60-64

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Abstract
The issue of "War and Terrorism" is one of the most urgent tasks to be tackled by Bioethicists. This paper reflects back on the author's experience in Vietnam during the early 1970s and presents "War and Terrorism" utilizing video images in a narrative approach. The author was shocked to learn from one of his Vietnamese students, the devastating affects of "defoliants" used by the U.S. military resulting in birth defects and still births as well as high rates of miscarriage. This encounter with "genocide" by biological weapons directed the author towards a new area of study with a focus on a supra-interdisciplinary study of Life and Ethics or "Bioethics". The author's study of bioethics is founded on belief that life, nature and its environment should be shielded from evil and hasty development of science and technology particularly from military use. The author's idea of "Supra-interdisciplinary Bioethics" has its basic roots from global human rights movements and the author has worked together with pioneering Bioethics scholars from U.S., Europe and Asia. We should avoid narrowing the concept of Bioethics only to cover "applied ethics" in biomedical clinical settings. The new notion of the supra-interdisciplinary Bioethics will open the new horizon for the future understanding of "Life" in the 21^<St> Century. The first step to acquire the true peace will begin with a sincere study of Bioethics against "War and Terrorism".
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2007 Japan Association for Bioethics
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