Call for papers
Convenor
Rajesh Kundargi
Pondicherry Central University
Co-covenor
Valerie Dkhar
Abstract
The new discipline of bioethics is very much an offshoot of the fast emerging biomedical technologies and its interplay with what’s being called as indigenous or ethnomedical practices of the people. And more often, what is being overlooked during the doctor-patient interactions are not just protocols and medical regulations, but in fact the very bedrock of medical ethics – the humanist ideas of bodily holism, integrity and human dignity. In these parleys between the “knowledgeable” providers and “layman” recipients, clarity is lacking as to whose world views are represented and how? Deeply held beliefs in human dignity and patient-centered care are not solely the legacy of western enlightenment. The modern bioethical arguments of “right to primary healthcare” and “health for all” are to a large extent based on the Euro-American notions of contract and individual choice. And therefore they create only a semblance of ethical choice in an intrinsically unethical context. The call for a unitary and absolute ethic of medical care devoted for the enhancement of the health status of the people at large ends all ethical inquiry and any possibility of a global social ethic of health care.