A Comparative Study Of Human Experimentation From The Christian And Islamic Perspective

ISSUE: Vol.4  No.1 September 2018 Article 8  pp.103-111
AUTHORS: John Kwaku Opoku  & Eric Manu

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ABSTRACT

Experimentation or research involving humans as subjects have been in existence throughout the years. This research conducted with human beings as subjects has brought about advancements in the knowledge of medicine (treatment of deadly diseases and all manner of psychological ailment as well as an overall understanding of the human anatomy). However, due to the nature of some horrendous experimentation such as those conducted by German Nazi, the Tuskegee Syphilis study and the Guatemala Syphilis experiments, ethicists are of the view that these experiments abuse the utilitarian motive of satisfying the greatest good. All these opinions have shaped people’s views on ethics of research resulting in ethical guidelines such as the Declaration of Helsinki and the Nuremberg Code to serve as a guide when researches are conducted on human beings. This paper is purposed to highlight the views of both the Christian and Islamic religions on the subject of human experimentation so as to enable individuals understand the bioethical views shared on this biological technology.

 

JOHN KWAKU OPOKU, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Head of the Ghana Unit of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics (Haifa). His area of specialization is Religion and Bioethics. ERIC MANU is a PhD candidate and a Lecturer in religion, spirituality and health at the Department of Religious Studies, KNUST.

Opoku, John K., and Manu, Eric. “A Comparative Study of Human Experimentation from the Christian and Islamic Perspective.” E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies 4, no.1 (2018): 103-111.

© 2020 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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