Bioethics for the Media
Why does UNESCO teach bioethics to journalists?
Rapid progress in science and medicine prolongs and saves lives. At the same time, the use of many modern technologies raises serious moral and ethical questions.
The only UN agency that is developing a new territory of bioethics is UNESCO. In particular, the UNESCO Regional Office in Moscow, in cooperation with leading experts in this field, organizes discussions, issues manuals and conducts seminars – not only for physicians and biologists, but also for journalists.
Alla Ampar from the UNESCO Moscow office told Elena Vapnichnaya about what is behind the concept of bioethics.
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AA: Such moments as cloning, transplantology, genetic engineering, genetic diagnostics, genetic testing, euthanasia are the most well–known to listeners, but not so common aspects and sections of bioethics. And such things that we encounter almost every day, but do not know that these are also aspects of bioethics, are, for example, social justice in healthcare. This is also one of the aspects of bioethics. Or problems related to the care of seriously ill people. Any problems of reproductive technologies.Of course, in the countries of our region, the problem of cloning or transplantation is not so acute. Most likely, the most pressing problem is social justice in healthcare.
What is UNESCO's mission? Our mission is education and enlightenment. We are engaged in both the promotion of professionals in this field and the education of the broadest segments of the population. The first document signed by UNESCO member countries was the Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights in 2005. Based on this Declaration, UNESCO has developed a basic curriculum for higher education. Now we are implementing this program in all universities, be it medical university, philosophical, biological, journalism. With the support of our office, remote online courses have been developed to teach journalists the basics of bioethics.
EV: I have a question – why is such attention paid to journalists? And what do you teach them?
AA: Why the attention to journalists? Because people of the same specialty cannot engage in bioethics, only, for example, doctors. This is a science where the opinion of biologists, lawyers, philosophers, theologians, sociologists is important. This is a science that generates a lot of questions to which there are no unambiguous answers, which can lead to positive effects in the form of some kind of correct legislation only through joint discussion, that is, public discussions, involving the entire civil society.
And how can civil society be involved in a mass discussion? Of course, thanks to the media. Thus, the media plays a crucial role in building a dialogue between scientists and society. Therefore, a lot of emphasis is placed on the media. And how the material will be presented in the press depends on what the reaction of society will be. Therefore, the question is that the media should not just be literate in the basic issues of bioethics itself, but also observe ethical norms based on the ethical code of journalists (I think that in every country, at least in the Russian Federation, there is definitely an ethical code of a journalist), as well as on some generally accepted moral ethical norms, acting on the principle formulated by Hippocrates – "Do no harm." After all, you must agree, for example, a story about transplantology or the use of stem cells, cloning, artificial insemination, are materials that promise to be sensational. It is necessary not to allow ethics to be violated in the pursuit of scandal and someone's rights to be infringed.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru25.12.2014