RESEARCH PAPER
An Analysis of the Meaning of “Respect for Life” for College Students: Toward Bioethics in Biology Classes
2001 Volume 42 Issue 1 Pages 11-20
Details
2001 Volume 42 Issue 1 Pages 11-20
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how students understand and recognize the meaning of the “respect for life” by conducting a questionnaire on 145 college students. The results are as follows;
1. How do students distinguish “life” by various views on “respect for life”? They distinguished (1) a vertebrate and an annelid as a view of “a pain” which they suffer, (2) a mammal as a view of “a companion” and “similarity” to us and (3) a vertebrate (excluding fish) as a view of “death”, from another “life”.
2. What attitude or acts do students consider as “respect for life”? They considered attitudes such as protection of animals, conservation of ecosystems and aesthetics of life (except for utility of life) as it.
3. What are reasons why students should consider “respect for life”? They consider (1) their duty to protect all “life” and (2) the dignity of life, as their reasons.
4. What biology classes or fieldworks at schools do students remember as relative to “respect for life”? Their good memories for “respect for life” are breeding and dissection. The one against it is dissection too.
5. What activities in a series of observations and experiments from elementary to high schools are not regarded as “respect for life”? For example, they are (1) shutting up animals in a small room for breeding and (2) killing animals for dissection.
