Global Bioethics: Building on the Leopold Legacy

GLOBAL BIOETHICS Building on tbe Leopold Legacy

by Van Rensselaer Potter

!'¥1ichlgan State University Press

1988

Cupyright © 1988 Van Rensselaer Potter Prlntf:d in the Uoited Stares of America All Ivllchigan State University Press books :ue prouuced on paper which Ineen; the requircll1cnts of American National Standard for InfurmiJtion Sciences Permanelce of paper for primed m3teriais ANSI 239.'18-

i984

Production, Julie L. Loehr Editing, Ellen M. Link Cover Design: Lynne A. Brown 'ltxt Design: C:oletU A Perry 'Py;)ography: the Copy fitters, Ltd, Edward Bracher>, Inc.'

Potter, Van Rensselaer, 1911 Global bioelhics.

~vledk:JI

179.1

ethics.

Lisa,

"labs, Eleanora, Joshua, Jeremy, and and all other grandchildren who wi1l inherit the 21 st century.

Michigan Stare Cniversily Press East L:H1s1ng, Michigan 4882,3~5202

Bibliography, p. Includes index:. L 13iocthlcs, 2. r"S2"~.P68 19i1il ISBN 0-87013-264-4

This bonk is dedlcal.ecl to Vivian. our grandchildren.

L Titlt: 88-42901

CONTENTS

FOREWORD PREFACE

vii

xiii

INTRODUCTTON KnoUlied,ge ofAdap!ation is J.Veeded for Wisdom

THE LEOPOLD LEGACY Neu.' PersjJectives en the h't)jJcld Legacy

0

13

Aldo LeojJ()ld:~' Ne,qtected LegaL}'

A LeojJGld Primer

2 HUMAN SURVIVAL The Cancer Anabgv

31

Hartb as Organism 0 The jssue of Sunrival Suroival Cannot Be Assumed 0 The Meaning oJ Suruiml 0

Kinds of Survit)ai

3 DILEMMAS IN ECOLOGICAL BIOETHICS From Knowledge to Wisdom

0

Tbe l)Ollar Dilemma

" TWO KINDS OF BIOETHICS Tbe illatter of Nomenclature L:-Ihics in a /'y'eu' Phase

u

0

.U "'

71

TeaclJing EriJics in Higher Education

Gloha! Bfoethlcs and the Feminine ViewjJoint

s

DILEMMAS IN MEDICAL BIOETHICS

'leenage Pregnancy

0

J!andimpped Nel{'borns

Futhanasia

L.l

95

Organ 71nnsplantation

The Secular Vision

0

6 THE CONT'HOL OF HUMAN FERTILITY '111'0 Kinds

(~r People

CJ

129

FOREWORD

The San Antonio Connection

Oinical Application.~: Ir!terlility c Norl:";UI:~ical Methods Q!" Contrucej.ltion Conrraceptive Research 0 Pregnancy Termiru:ltion Planned IntcrL'eniiol1 in Population Change D Ferlilily-Reguluiing Methuds Social c! ReligiGUS Correlates of FeJ'tifiry

7 GLOBAL BTOETHICS DEFINED iii/man fieaitIJ as tbe Gfobalflioerhic

0

151

Medica! Bioethlcs in Perspecliue

Ecological Biuctbics in Perspl!cli[l(J

Appmdix 1 185

THE LEOPOLD HERITAGE The Leopold Fawi!J Heritage'

[-I

The Leopold illtcUrctual Herita,ge

AppC~Kil.x

2

193

A BJOETHlCAL CREED FOR INDIVIDUALS

INDEX

197

IDEAS HAVE A LIFE AND POWEll of their own. An idea can shape or reshape the ways in which we understand and expenence reality Encountering a fruitful idea, we say, Ah-ha! and see the world anew amI cannot imagine it otherwise. The ideas that shape our vision of ourselves and our reality structure the very tak"n-for-grantecl character of everyday life. The same at limes happens with new words. A new word often allows liS to name elements of reality in a way that conveys new control over our Cu1tm21 environment. JUs oftennot the precision of aword thatisthe sourceof its power ,md usefulness. In tact, it is often the imprecision, ih~]ack Of clarity, that allows us to name and bring together at on" time many areas of interest. An apt word can assemble a rich set of images and meanings and thus help us to see rdations between dements of reality that were previously separated in our vision and thought of only as disparate. Snch ;1 word has a fertile or strategic ambiguity. This has been the case with "bioethics."

viii

CLOLiAL LilOhJ111CS

In the 1960s there was a growing concern to understand and master our rapidly developing sciences and technologies. The aSpif of a without change in their genetic makeup, For cX:dInplc, adaptation to high altitude, which I have and studied in the I1igh Andes of Peru, occurs in several physiological systems with different time scales, Best known is the increase in hemoglobin and red cells in the blood, In all examplcs, built·in biocybernetic systems programmed by the DNA in the genetic apparatus constantly read molecular and physical environments (for eX:lmple, the percent of oxygen in the air) and feed back information to the machinery for genetic changing the physiology of the individual in a seemingly purposeful (i.e tclconomic) to become :as successful as possible in reproducing its into the nex1: generation !f

[-,vitding rm tbe Ll!opcJd l.ega,y

6

H1'()lutionm), adaptation is a property of a pop

uhtion. It occurs over a succession of generations by a gradual Ol' sometimes rapid change in tbe genetic information stored in DNA as one generation succeeds anotber. The changes can be looked upon as copy-errors that arc dth"l' spontaneous and infrequent or brought about more frequently by chemical or physical agents in the environment. Agents that cause copy-errors an:: usually damaging to individuals, causing cancer and other "bnormalities a[ low concentra[ions and death at higher concentrations. Evolutionary ad;aptation may be: seen as a mechanism for changing the cap"city of a species 10 achieve descendents with improved physiological adaptation to a new environment or to the existing environment. It succeeds whcn changes in lhe environment ate nO! too rapid. If we attempt to the "ought" from all this we find that every organism "knows" what is bad and what is good for the present. Anything that causes death witbout adequate species reproduction Is bad. Anything that changes the genome in a way that diminishes the capacity for physiological adaptation to the range of environmental variations extant is bact Anything [hat increa.ses the capacity for physiological adaptation to the existing environment is good. But no organism is equipped to prepare in advance for a future altered environment (Dobzhansky 1958). N evenhclcss, the Imman spe dcs may come closest to thal possibility on the basis of its superior capacity for physiological and cultural adaptation. With cultural adaptatlon the possibility to extinction exists but cannot guaranteed, even if an adequate overall biocthic could be adopted. Cultural adaptation in humans and in a few species occurs both in individuals and in popul3 [ions. It is limited by the two biological pro('esses of

adaptation, but it is speeded up tremendously by all the recent developments that can be lumped under the headings of communication and irl/ormat/(m storage and relrieval. It is possible that there are disadvantages to cultural adapmtion that may comparable to those in biological adaptation. That is, there is a fatal flaw in the combined biological mechanism sucb that, when a species becomes bettef and better adapted to a given steady-state envi· ronment, it may become totally incapable of sllrviving in an environment that has been drastically changed over a relatively sbort time period. So it may bave been with the dinosaurs, as many believe. As noled earlier, most species that have cvc:r existed have become exlinct because of this fatal flaw in their genetic makeup. Until recently; the human species waS no diffcrem from mher species in the f:Jilnrc to sec fatal flaw. the human species now contains a few individuals an: :l\vare of the significance of the fatal t1aw. The propOSi[ions stated by Dobzhansky an: less than thirty years old and to my knowledge have not been challenged, In fact, they would be regarded as truisms by most scientists who are knowledgeable in the field of evolution, even though they take no action in the matter. Of course, the creationists and "11\' OIbcrs who doubt that evolution is " fact of life a~c oblivious to the implications of the "fatal flaw." Any ethiC for the human species has to be based on the "Is" of possible extinction and the fact that each of us has a bullt-in species-memory that tell;, us how we "ought" to live. We ought to live in such a way as to avoid the fate of most olher species We ought to listen to those Ii:w who have thc knowledge that can contribute to the prevention or delay of extinction. We ought to ckvelop interdiSciplinary groups that can question those components of our ptesent culmre that are hastening the clestruction of

CfDRAL RfORTHfCS

the natural environment. We ought to read Aldo Leopold and C. H. Waddington and consider whethcr our special knowledge can contrihute to survival and amelioration of the human condition. In this book I describe some of the urgent ethi· cal problems that face society today. Dilemmas arise when decisions are demanded in the area covered hy medical hioethics "when life takes precedence over health." The issue is hasically one of deciding whether to adhere to the "sanctity of life" concept at all costs, or whethcr to raise the question of "quality of life" or "meaningful life." Medical lech· nology has achieved miracles, yet in many cases the v ictory has been the thwartlllg of death but not thc restoration of health. In other words, the new techllologies frequently lead to dccisions in which life maintenance has t<Jken precedence over the restura· tion of a meaningful existence. In the field of ecological bioethics then: arc also dilemmas tl1m in some respects parallel the medical problems. The ambivakncc of medical hiocthics is mirrored in the powerlessness of ecological bioeth· ies. For example, depletion and degradation of our water resources is the ecological cquivalent of the neglect of the bioethical problem of teenage preg· naltey by the medical profession. In hoth cases ethical theories abound but society has been unable to reach a consensus on what is to be done. Just as there arc somc medical bioethicists who argue the mailltellJnce of life no matter how miserable it may be, there are ecological bioethicists wbo argue Ihat economic growth and full cmploytJl(:nt should have top priority, even at the cost of air and water pollmion and acederated depletion of nonrenew'lble resources. There is also a parallel between those who are arguing for meaningful life and those w 110 are arguing for the preservation of the natural environment. Ecological bioetllics must support Ihe

I,"·

Buildin,R

01'1

fhe Leopold IegrJcv

9

prevention of air and waler pollution as well as the conservation of both renewable ane! nonrenewable resources. In essence, the issue is whether the quality of life concept is ethically similar to quality of the environment and whether the sanctity of life position has its counterpart in the sanctity of the dollar. Ale!o Leopold recognized the latter position when he said, it of course goes wlthout saying that economic feasibility limits the lelher of what can or unnot he Joue for ianlt It always has and it always will, The faliacy the economic delerminists have tled around our collective neck, and which we now need to cast off, is the helief thal econornics determines at! land use. This is sirnply not truc.9

Kenneth Boulding put it neatly when he said, Ecology's uneconomic, But with anotl,er kind of logic Economy's unecologic. 1o

Obviollsly we must seek a halance het ween ecological hioethics and economic domination just as we need to tind a balance between sanctity of life ,md meaningful life. "Ibday it is apparent thar many features of society, seen on J worldwide basis, arc incompatible with acceprahk survival or, to use Lester Brown's term, a "sustainable society" (sec chap. 2). For m'lny parts of the world, qualit y of life is a meaningless term; mere survival has hecome unplectsant and dif. ficult. It is recognized that rhe goal of worldwide controlled human fertility on an equitable basis and within a healthy ecosystem may be impossible to achieve in a world with multiple ethnic and religious groups wllo orrlOse artificial means of birth control. However, without progress toward

G'IDIL:L Blf)EiHICS

the achievement of the twin goals of birth control and environmentJI protectioll, the linure could be bleak indeed, We must therei()re tI,e present efforts in biocthics, particularly as they relate to medicine, to a recognition that the ethical behavior of human, kind must be cohercnr with ecological realities, This exploration is an extension of ideas first formulated by AIda Leopold, Only through the evolution of a third-and completely interdisciplinarv and global-bioethics,n ,combining a reexamined 'medtcal hioethies with a responsibility-oriented ecological biocthics, can the future of humankind be seen as anything other than that t(lrCSeen bv Roberr Heilbroner in his introduction to An I"q~iry into the Human Prospect: "The answer to whether we can conceive of the future other thall "8 a continuatiOll of the darkness, cruelty, and disorder of the past seems to be no; ;md to the qllestion of whether worse inlpcnds) yes." 12

L Van RensSdaer Potter, BridR€ to the Future (Englewood Cliff" NJ, Pl'emkt",Hall, 1971), Charier 1 "\V:]5 entitled of Game

Management, Leopold might have become trapped

in a process of revision that never ends for most authors as long as the later editions find readers. i\ot so with Leopolcl. His book was reprimed but not revised, because he turned his creative writing talents to the wider meaning of conservation. As ill the case of his criticism of specialized forestry, he now critici;:ed academic specialization, even thOllgll he himself had created a new specialty. Leopold called the reductionist approach used by speCialists in the uni versltv system "dismemberment:' criticizing professors f(Jr "examining the construction of the plants, Jmmals, and soils which are the instruments of the great orchestra" witl1()Ut ever 100k1l1g the "harm(ll1Y" (Almanac, Leopold's expanding vision called for an understanding of the whole field of ecology, a specialty combining all bic)!ogical spe, cialties; but he wamed to go even further. He C011, cluded with the somewhat hitter remark that the scientist, like the otter playing tag in the pools and rifl1es of the Gavilan, "has no doubts about his own design for living. iIe a"umcs that for him tlie Gavllan will sing forever" (

{!,tune rrtanage1l1enf" (italiCS

added). In 193'1 Leopold published his epic text· book Game lvIanagement, 4 which "is still regarded as a basic sPJlement of the science, art, and profes· sion of wildlife management" and which "has been contmuously in print since '1933" (Flader, 23). While this auriloril'-ltive textbook, which created the new sctence of game management, integrated details from 427 sources by my count, only seven were from the Journal Of F'orestl:V and three of those were by Leopold himself. Interestingly enol1gh, he did nO! refer to his 1918 proposal th:u foresters muSt act as leaders ill the neW science.

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE LEOPOLD LEGACY

The most illuminating picture of Aldo Leopold and a magnificent monument to him is the thoroughly researched and authoritative biography Aldo Leopold. Ilis Life (lwi 1l>,)rA" published bv Curt Meine in t98H.' Meine spent over three years working with hundreds of letters, as well as the original notes and iournals of l.eopold preserved in the Leopold ,uchives at the LniverSity of Wisconsin, along with personal interviews, publishecl ~lld unpuhlished manuscripts, and other historlcal

lei

GlOBAL R10l!iH1CS

sources to uS the first comprehensive biography of Aldo Leopold. Not the Ie",t useful ponion of the coverage is the complete list of the" Published Writings of Aldo Leopold" {603-201 COvering the years 1911 to 1948, for which Meine gives Susan Flader "principal credit for compilation" From this list we leal'll that during the years 1933 to 1.948, when Leopold was compiling th", essays which evcmually gave birth to "The Land Ethic," he was issl:ing a barrage of short papers on a bewildering vanety 01 subjects in a plethora of communication channels, each message articulating a particular aspeCl of rHS many-t;lCcled world views. For example, In 1940, when he first published "Song of the Gavilan" (later included in the ALmanac), he publIshed twemy-three other items on various topics in sixreen cllfferent media channels. of which Wisconsin Agriculturist and Farmer ;:ontained six and Journal of Wildlife Management contained five, while the others contained one or two by my count. A similar tally for the entire period of 1911':" 1948, with an attempt to categorize the topics covered, would only begin to plumb the dimensions of tbe Leopold legacy. The many citations from his cady letters to his mother and father also reveal a new insight into Leopold's lifelong love of nature. In short, the "1elne book contains encyclopedic Coverage of the Leopold legacy, induding reference to earlier books On Leopold, On a much smaller scale than Meine's is another book Ibm tbe University of WisconSin entitled Companion to A Sand County Almanac.' Edited by J. Baird Caificort, Jt contains thirteen by ten authors to provide well organized coverage. The 1986-88 harvest included additional insights by Wisconsin professors Ion 0i Moline' and RObert A. :>'fcCabe, , a studcnt Aid, Leopold.

of

1!ulJding On the J.e()f;oJd LeYf,tJc)'

From such a wealth of material it is my impression that Leopold contnbuted so much to so many aspects of conservation that his underlying con~crn for the future of the human species was overlooked. His views on the overconsumption of renewable and nonrencwa ble resources by an cxponentially increasing human population were neglected, while Ilis love of nature was a comfortable aspect of his life for others to asslmilate. Yet Lcopold did worry about consumption of material goods and, indeed, was the firs! to enunciate the concept of zeropopulatioJ1 growth (ZPG). In a minor publication (Condor) in 1932, he responded to some criticism in a rwo-page commentary on all of his admitted personal depletions the natural environment;

of

"Nav w.ort;?, when l1ather more tban tu;o cbildrt111 am ~rcatjr:g an insatiable need for morc primjr~g press(".'), more (0\\'&, more coffee, more oil, and morc rubhcr, to supply \vhid: tll0re buds, more

trees, and more tlowc;rs, ~vm cithej:" be, killed, or wllAtt is just as destructive; ev:cted from theIr cnvi~ [Onment6," (Meine, 290. tt2liCS added)

ALDO LEOPOLD'S NEGLECTED LEGACY

AJdo Leopold saw that human survival depended on the maintenance of a h~althy ecosystem and the control of human fertility-at a timc when neither of these ideas was widely understood. I believe he was able to define right ;md wrong ultimately in terms of hum,m survival and t11e prcsen~l­ rion of the biosphere. "A thIng is right when It tends to preserve the integrit)', stability, and beamy of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise" (Almanac, 224).

18

G[O&L fJ/O£Tl1ICi

Leopold laid out a cohercnt and logical sequcnce of propositions that contains much morc than that simple statement, which has been taken bv manv to encompass the Leopold philosophy. It 5c';'n;, justiliable to conclllde that he was indeed concerned with rhe relation between increases in tbe human population and the "permanence" or survival of society. He fell that the hllman species Can survive only if (1) the ecosystem as a whole is capable of recovering and sllrvlving tbe "v iolencc" exercised by the human species in the course of economic exploitation; and (2) the number of human beings is held within tile boundaries set by the limitations of the eCOsystem. If these conclusions were apparent to an ecoiogist in 1933, what should ecologists of the 1980$ conc1utle? Perhaps a review of Leopold's views could open the discussion. From Leopold's "Land Ethic" (Almanac, 20126), we can distill a series of statements that could be regarded as axiom a tic and self-eVident by anyone who has had sufficknt experience in the t1eJd of ecology and who is concerned with the survival of humarlkind in a healthy ecosystem. [ will refer to these statements collectively as "A Leopold Primer:' I do not believe that a comparable synoptic view of "The Land Ethic" is ;wailahle. I have quoted directly or paraphrased twenty-four Leopold statements under three headings: Land, EthiCS, and SurvivaL Each statement in the first two instances is based on a sentence in which Leopold used the word land or the word etlJie In the third instance 1 have inferred that SUYVilmi was in Leopold's minel It is not Implied that the statements, either in the original form or as paraphrased, arc statements of fact; the v arc value judgments from Leopold, a man witil a deep and profound ecological conscience. It is recommended that readers cxamille the original context.

Building ()n ,tho l copofd r cgacy

i9

A LEOPOLD PRIMER L Lanel I, The basic concept of ecology is that land is a community. (Pataphraseu from 204) 2, "Land then, is (l()t merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, waTer, plams, and :=inimals [and ba~k] to the soiL" (216) 3. Land, collectively, Is J biotiC mec":1anjsm, (ParaphrJ.sed from 211j 4. "Many historical evenLS I hi\heriO explained solely in rums of human enterprise: were actually biotic intelactions bet~veen people and land." (205) 11. Ethics

5, "An t'lhic ecologically, is J Hmit3J~on on freedom of action it) the struggk for existence." (202) 6. '~>\n ethic, philosophically. is a differentiation of social from anti-socia1 conduct," (202) ! "There is as yet no ethic ceaHng wIth Hun's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon iL" {2(3) 8. "The extension of erhics LO [land] is an evol~).Hon;n y pO-':1S1hility anu -an ecol()gjc~l nece'i~~ty rfl1f human

survival]."

(203)

9, '~J\ll etbiC's so fa;: evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual l;:; a member Df a comllll.mity of imer:..iepc:ndenl parts," (203) Ifl "A land ethlc changes the role of Numo sapiens from conQueror of lhe land-community to plain memher :ll;d cir17.cn of iL" (20:+) 11. "lA land ethic! implies respect :'by l:UIT1;JIl indiv~d~ uals for their feJlow lH.1IT1'lns] and :11S0 respecr ror the [biotk! community as such," (204) 12. '~\ land ethic .. " reflects the existence of an ecological conscience." (221) B. ''An ethic to supplement and guide the economic

relationShip to land presupposes the existeuce of 50r)",(' rnerital image of lane: a..., a biotIc mechanifirn." (214)

20

GLORA 1: BIOETH!CS

11. ".we can :?c ~,hica] only jn relation to something we

ed,n Sec, !ee~, understand, love, or othe(wise have faith in." (214) 15. "Ir:-drvidual ttliJ1kers, since the day,:, of Ezekiel :mcl IS~llah, ha:1 e 3sserrcd Ulat the despoliation of l:md is nor only mexpedient but wrong." (203) tIt SurVival

16, "".M~I?~~~jde changes [in the land-communityl arc of a dIfferent order thai) evolutionary changes. anu hav:~ effects mort:' com t l[chcl1sjve than IS Int~nded or fOreseen." (218) 17, "Th(' less vioknt the man~madc change'), the ~reater tJ:c probabiHty of su(,c(~6-sful rcadjusul1ent" lin the bHHIC community], (220) 18, "Violence lto the blork COfi1n'lUDltYl varies with hUm?D popUlation density; :l dense population req'tl1res 4 more viofent conversion." (220)

19, "~onh

America has a better chance for [survival I than Europe if she can COntrrve to limit her popUlation denSity." (220) 20. "EC?logy knows of no population density relatlO~ship that holds for indefinitely wide limit~. A,lI ?,:m~ from den~ity are subjccl to a law uf dall1D1 shmg returns." (220) perm~nence

21. "Mar:-Y hiotas ., have already exceeded their ~ustall1ed carrying capacity, ,~'lost of South America [5 overpopu14lted in this sense." (219) 22. Dc~ent land lIse requires decisJOfLleine, Alclo Leopold, His !.ife ancl WI"k (\Iadison,

LIniven.;ity of Wisconsin Press, 1988), 529 pages of rext and photOgraphs plus 105 pages of bibliographies, nOles, and index. 6, J Baird Callicott) cd.; Companion to A S'and CQuntv Almanac (Madison: Colverslty of Wiscollsin Press, 19R7).

'

7, Jon N MoUne, ':AIda Leopold and the Mora! Commlmity," JJrwironmental Ethics 8 (Summer 1986): 99-120,

McCabe, Aldo Leopold, The Professor (Macli son: Rusty Rock Press, 1987). 9, Nina Leopold llraclley, letter to the amhor 3 March 1988, 'An aenon policy To help guide his own children was Leopold's restoration of his worn out sand county farm. \Vith enthusiasm from hIS v,"ife and five children (later in hfs life he spoke of the Impropriety of siring mort than two children) the 'amily k"rncd a good deal about the land organism as they tried to rebuild 'integrity; stabHlty and hcauty' into it. The simpHdty of the 'Shack;' the hard work with shovel and axe, the camardderie. the love of hmd, brought us to a wider understand11~g of each other, of the, natural system, and our place in it." 10. ]. Baird CaHicotl, 'Ammal Liberatlon: A Triangular Affair;' 8, 110bert A,

in Ethlcs and tbe Environment, ed. D, f;cherer and '1'.

Mtig(Englcwood Cliffs, N,J,: Prcntlcc,HaU, 198,0),

29

lL V R Potter, "Bioethic~ aad the Iluman PrOlsrcct," jn Swdie.'; in SCi(!11CC' and Cuiturp, v~}L 1, 'fbe Culture Of Biomedicine, cd. n H, Brook (Cranbury, N.J.: As:-,o" dalton or Cniversity Presses, inc. 1981), 124-3 7 ,

U. "W'illiam Vogr, Road to SUl"viv{'{1 (New York: William S!oane AssociateS, Inc., 1948). 13, ~Tallace Stegner, "The Legacy of AIda Leopold," in Callicott, Compatlion, 2:,,9.

. . ._-- 2 -_ . . . . . . . .~. . . . HUMAN SURVIVAL

THE CANCER ANALOGY

O:-l TlECE~!BER 28, 1954; the Americm Association the Advancement of Science held a symposium on "Population Problems," at which Dr, At:m Gregg, vice'president of the Rockdeller Foundation (1951came up with a startling idea: the thought that the human specks is to the planet Earth what a can, cer is to an individual human being. As a cancer spe, cialist T was aware of the many eontributing lines of thought and so was not altogether surprised to note the same idea proposed by another eminent biolo, gist, Professor Norman J, Bcrrill of McGill Cniversity, in his superb book iVlan's Emerging ,}fina, l It WaS publlshed same year that ("",~~'c symposium paper appeared in Science.2 The remarks by these two men of science suggest that the effect of an ever,expanding human population 011 the carrying· capacity of the planet Earth bear" examination, We do wouid well to examine their words.

02

EARTH AS ORGANISM

Gregg esroused an idea that W8S cleady enunclated in 1949 by Aldo Leopold, who referree! to "land the collective organism" :mel stated, "Land. then, is not merely soU; il is a founr;lin of energy llowing through a circuit of soils, rlants, and animals. Food chains an: the living channels \vhich condllct energy upward; cleatll anti decay return it to the soll."3 Leopold also amicipaled Gregg a1ld l3etrill whc:n he remarke(!, "This almost worldwide display of disorganization in the land seems to be SImilar to disease in an animal excC'pL Ihat it never clllminates in complete disorganization or death. The land recovers, but at some reduced level of complexity, ami with a reduced carrying capacity li)r people, phmts, and animals" (Almanac, 297). Alan Gregg proposed similar ideas in his aforementioned symposium paper: ''If we regard the different forms of plant and animal life in the world as being so closely related to and dependent on one another thallhcy resemble different types of celLs in a total organism, Ihen we may, for the sake of a hypotheSiS, consider the living world as an organi.sm." lie went on to What wOd!d 'VcT' think if II became ~Vtdcnt thal within a very brit.:' period in the history of the

world some 0012 lype of its forms of Hk had increased greaHy at the expense or utlIer types of life? In ~hor1, I suggest, as a way of lool{lng at lhc popub~ior: problern, [hat rhere are some interesting v!edge with whatever additionaL ingredient they are :lblc to IHaster, and to become, if their t3ients are the ne"" leaders of tomorrot\', from such a pOOling: of knowledge and v31ues may tiOII,

Building on the! 2(l,t>0i4 ICgCICV

come a eew kind of scholar Cit sta:esmae \v 110 has masteted '\vhat I have referred to as Rioerhks, No incHviuual could possibly masLer all of the compo nenlS of this branch of kilowlectge l just :lS no one roday knows all ofzooJogy or;all of chemisu"j/. What. is needed is 3. new discipline to provide models ot [if~: styles for people who L:an cnnullunicate wIth each other ;md propose Jnd explain rl1e new public polIcIes that could provide a ;'hridge to the future,'· The new disciplines will be forged in (he beal of tod~Jy's crJsis prohlem~, all of '''hkh require some kind of a mix bel ween bask biology, s(ieial sciences, ;md the humanities. Blol!Jgy is more than botany and ~oology rt is the fOU!1liation on which we b'Jild ecology, which is the relation among platlt~, at!imalf.., mao, and the phvsicaJ environr:H':nL Biology includes the s5ier1ce of 'genetics, which has to do with all aspect,s of heredity, and physiology, waich deals ~vitI1 the function of individuals. For thousands of years men have Uved on lhis earth with no generally disseminated knowledge of their chemica! nml1re. l."lan's dependence upon tis natural elvironment w,-tS wideiv understood. hur Nature'S hounty v;t"'dS COD· sidere'd ru be limitless and Namre's to recover frOI11 {~pl()iclrlon V1'71S to be ample. Eventually it """as realized tll.'1t [Dan was exploiting the earth to an cxtent rh~lf the ut.e 01 more and more science and ,,1S the richcst sourcc!) of iron and copper, for ,:xamp[,::, were used up, From the biologkal srandpoinlman has progressively taken over the resource" by decn::',;iSing the numbers Slle is the lL1bit1bU~ ity of the eanb, and it is in this conlext :lOt in the cunleXl of the dhcG slaughter of hundreds of mn~ lions of people by the !ocal effects, lhal the question of hUI:1an 5urv!vI FRAiL TJ:::5

2, ENv/ROill'AENT A ~ FRAILTIES

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implicit that the focus was on the ethics of individuals in relation to other individuals ami not on Aldo Leopold's "third step in a sequence." Evidence for the exclusion of ecological and population prot !ems is abundantly clear from the collection of eighty-seven essays in the 1978 book Contemporary Issues in Hioelhtcs, edited hy 10m L. Beauch~mlp of the Kennedy Institute and LeRoy Walters from the Center for f\ioethics :n Georgetown Cniversityc They highlighted their point of view in the prel'dce: Recent develormenls in the biomedical Held:, have icd to considerable :noraf per;·;lcxify about tht' rights :md dutic.,.. 8iOETf- CS

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l:'::": T:':~PPRQ8LEMS - - POPJLATION

H:'AL"'f'Ft..L ENVIRONMEN:-

I !.JD!v/DUAL HEALTH

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SPECIES SGR\jlYAL

ST4B~L:ZEO

'-!LIvIA'
"'Those who regard "overpopulallOl:" as a myth do not L"Vc:nmerit Ci1..1rlon in my opinion, They inducieJdian Simon, Ben W.'menberg, and John Tierney. Sec Rohert S, McN:an1.'tm, "Time Bomb or 1'clf is bf"ing tested by medidne. B

And, we might add. ethics itself is being rested by ecological, population. and pollution all Over the world, That the competence of classical philosophy to solve bioethical problems is being questioned can· not be doubted. Bernard Williams, provost of King's College, Cambridge Liniversity, himseif trained in philosophy, has called fOf philosophers "to tran scend their self-imposec1limits :md to give full attention [0 the complexities of tile ethicai iife."" Williams is primarily concerned with the limitations of philosophy and never approaches the

concerns of medical or ecological bioethics. Even in a single case, that of deciding for or against :tbortion (U2-H), Williams does not give a solution bm uses the problem to illustrate the difficulties of reasongiving, He states that the attempt to rest the structtlre of knowledge on some favored class of statements has nov.' genef~l11y been ui.splaced in favor of a holis:ic tYflC' of model, in \vhich S'JH1C beliefs can be quesLiofled, justifled, or adjusted whlle other:; are- kept constant, bu'.. '.here is GO pro('cs, that perv'ades jmedican blOe'ttucs makes it d[fficllit to imrod un: and Jind al~ ~tppropriat;;.; pj~cc for v'a/ues ~ike decency, kindness, crnp~fhy, car1l1g, devoUon, service, generosity, aitmlslll, sa-crJfice, and love, .

8.l

They object when vdlue:; like these, that center on the hond;.; hetweec self and otbers and on comrr:unity, and lhat inch:dc oOlh 'strangers' and 'brothers' and future as weH as present gencrdtioH.•,) in their orbit, are categoriz.cd in [mccicalJ bioethics as sociological, theological, Or religiOUS rather them as ethical or niora!. (355)

Emphasizing the bipolar choices thal the basic indi~ vidualistic position of (medical) bioethics produces, the authors include "self versus others," "rights ver' sus responsibilities," and "independence versus dependence," among others (355). In a subsequent section I will disellss "responsibility" as a key COil, cept in the proposed globai bioethics, and here not( that the points made bv fox and Swazev are quite in agreement with my recent characteriz,ltion of medi, cal bioethics as bein!? primarily concerned with individual survival in a shorr,term time frame (see Potter, "Response to Clements" Chapter 4, n,3). The arrlcle by Fox and SwaLey has not gone unnoticeci, In a recent paper entitled "Baiting Biocrhics," GOfOvitz assembles all the complaints against (medkal) biocthics but focuses his rebuttal on Fox and Swazey in particu1irf. He assens rhat they h'l\~e misrcpresemed some of his own views as parr their case "that individualism and 3u!Onomy have an illegitimate hegemony in [medical! bioethlcal thought." Concluding that "Fox and Swney have not made their case," he adds, "but despite my criti~ cism of their complaints, I have a lingering sense that their attack on [medicalj bioethics would nOt have been so eloquent Of SO impassioned were there not a grain of [ruth in what they say" (Gorovitz, 3(7).

(;[Ol:dL BJOETJ11CS

Clements attacks medical bioethtciSLs from a different angle." She criticizes all th()se~and EngelhardT" in particular- who believe that medical biocthics should be concerned with procedure and the proper functioning of the (medical) bio('[hical bureaucracy rather than with content.

ETH ICS I]\i A l\T\'V PHA,sE In the same vein as Fox and Swazey, Clements and Ciccone, professors of psychiatry at the University of Rochester, specifIcally and succinctly challenged the philosophic viewpoint as presented by Levine and Lyon-Levine." They noted that these anthors assumed lbat the problem of patient advo. cacy (the patient's best interest) can best be understood in rhe classical ethical prinCiples of autonomy and beneficence (medical paternalism), which Clemems and Ciccone lumped under the term "universal principles." They expressed the opinion that "most articles on medical ethics routinely reject the inductive method and accept the use of principles" to support the Idea, for example, of patient autonomy. They list the arguments and rebuttals as follows; Thi~ posillon stHes th;n ' __ ,,_/ . • d T 1 Beauin (~orztemp(l1'ar_'/ Issues U1 hWt:< )f~",~, . • , , ch~lmp and l" 'X/alters (Belmont, calIf.: W;adsworth, lq~H) 'j?-60 ".,.~' « 'h«1(5,"F'l'h's96\'l,)H6)< 7 Samuel Gonwit7, ,'Banmg Bwet .• ) _., ersjlectires itt DiotogJ' and 111!?dicine 26 ~ 1982): 04-78. 19 C(:ll~en 1,>, ~-=1emcnts ;:md J, Richard Ckconc. 'Applied ClmJGll Ettucs Or linlvltTsai l)/inc1ple,')," lIo;:;pital and COmrtluni~yP~yclJiat!:v36(1985): 121 .\4. L. Ll"vine and .tvt Lyon~Lt'vjne, "'Etlli(:al Con1Hcts At the Interface of Aclvoc:KY ~,nd Psychiat:-y," flosJ)llal and Communi!}' Psycbiatr,'': 35 (198--1): 66:;·,-66, ' 20. v. R Potter, "Hnmllity with Responsibility." Intuitions wt:rc dhcusscd in ('onneUlor. \vit!: "The hurek:.. Experience," 8 sudden intuition that cannol be wiHec or predicted, Experknce: has :;hown that an in~llition tLat pn:dkts :he outc,)P1e of J decision may bc correct or incorrect and ll'.e in (orren lnnlition may produce just :is much euphoria as a ('effect one. In erhics as in ,',ciellcc, the vaIid~ty of:i prcdiction can only be tested by experience, However, In ~h(:' cnc, alihovgt the deci1)10115 t',lilorcd to e2ch partlcuJ:u cal)C are preferable to bure:mcratk dictation ofuniversaJ principles, su~h dcci:'t:on \\.'iH ;~lv~l ve rcason-giving thar falls back O~l expcr;.. ence In 51InH:Jr ,-'Jses. Hu: the evaluation 0;' the past exp:~r~em:c, .in eth~cs as in scitC:Hce will lean hc:ndi.y on the JOJF:t e!lorts 01 motivared and qualified partic:pJJlL5,

The conc~usion rJ'..1bortj()n politics wO'Jici ... cXlend the c.ubious nloral reaUty of fcm;;t1e subjugation and mate suprem3cy," 5ti 22. Carol GiLigan, In a D~l.jerellt Hiice. PsychologiutJ Tbeol)l and Wbmel1';,: De!.!etopmeYli (Carnbridge, :\-1;:v:.'): Harvard Cniversity Press, 1982;. Sec ::lIs() 1,. Kohlherg, Tbe Pbilosop}:1! of ;HoraJ Del'eioprnent (San Francisco:

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Harper Jnd Ro\. . ., 19tH). Jean Baker Millef. 1()ward a/,/{!u' P5)'cbology of Wcnnen (Boston: Hcaco:1 Press, 1976),

:-\ldo Leopold, "\\fhy lhe Wilderness Soricly?" A 1955 comment reprintecl In l.Vflderness, \Vinter 1984, ,22: \ff>bster:'i Tbird New International Dlctionar.v (Sprmg· ftekL Mass.: G. C. Merriam (z)rnp::my, :96':;). "Eant. Moths and extend the intcofat1O!l " o!ob'l .. n ' .. •'I) "" D' ' TIl}? NUMBERS

For ra",;, data on teenagc pregnancy, the 597~page Reporlof lhe Seleel Cumlllittee on Cbildren. KJUtb and Families is a useful compendium,. Th~ c()m~

mitlee concluded, "There is no focused approach to solving the complex problems of teen pregnancy at any level of government. The efforts that do exist arc toO few, [are] llncoordinated, and lack significant supp()n~ In short, the system is broken" (ix)~ The cnrrent sill1alion fOf the United Statcs on an anm,"l basis (1'o)82) is reported in round numbers for lOA million adolescents ages fifteen LO nineteen: over one million teen,lgc pregnancies resulted in 400,000 abortions, over 100,000 miscarriages, and SOQ,OOO births~ Fifty~five percent of these births 3re to unmarried teens, w hose infants are at far greater risk of low birth Weight, and therd()[c infant mortality. (Details regarding premature births, birth defects, ami mental retardation appear to be unavailable.) Thc bll'ths to teens accounted [or almost 14 percent of ,Ill births, and "most tccn'lge pregnancies m the United States arc unintended" (2)~ But, significantly, one~thlrd of teenage mothers will have;i second pregnancy while still in their teens (2)~ While the pregnancy rate increased between 1970 and 198::\, the actual number of births and the birth rate declined due to the increased rate of abortions (3, 20 ftlg. 1j), Meanwhile, t.he percentage of t.eenage mothers who were unmarried rose: from 1960 to 1983 tile number of unmarrIed teens giving birth rose from 15 percent ro 54 percent. Births to unmarried teellS accounted for ne;lrly 40 percent of all

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births to unmarried women (4)~ The data do not show how many of the "unmarried women" were unmarried teen mothers when their first child was bort). Debate as to the role played hy legislative assistance to un-r/eu mOthers continues. Birth rateS varv for white and minority teens~ The ratc is much t{ighcr for black adolescents (9S~ 5 per 1000 in 1983) than for white adolescents (4::\:6 per 1000 in 1'0)83), '~Blacl' adolescems ~Iso b~gl11 childbearing at younger than wllnes, l11erea,mg the Jjkelih()~)d of subsequent births during the teenage years" (4, [Table 2])~ Bur the correlation is with poverty. "Families headed by young mothers are seven times more likely to be living below the poverty level than other families" ([/j)~ "Children of teen parel1ls lend to be less healthy on the average than Olher children, and to exhibit learning difficulties more frequently in school. They also are likely to become teen par"nts thermel~ ves" (17). "Low birth Weight, whicl1 is strongly associated with infant mortality, remains high among infants born to teens~ 1eenage mothers typically account for about 1 in 5 low birthweight infants In 1983. there were ,+7,500 low birlhweight infants born to teens under 20, almost 20 percent 01 all births to teens" (12)~ These facts may suggest thm the adoption of a teenager's offspring may inv01v,e a risk~ Data show tl1at in 1971,2 percent of unmarned black teenagers and 18 percent of umnarned white teenagers who gave birth placed theIr dl!ldren lor a(loption, By 1976 the figure for whites had dropped to 7 percent and the black r3te had dropped to zero. Again, the a'~,lllability of welfare ffi3Y h,}ve affected the number of infants offered tor adoption. ~ ~ The impact of low birth weight on medICal bl0~ ethics has been reflected in a recent art ide by Hack

100

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eLORAI. BJ01:THfCS

and Fanaroff,' In the report, 98 infants born at a gestation;]! age of twenty to thirty weeks had birth weights between 260 and 740 grams, 1\venty Infants sllCVlved but all required active respiratory Slipport, prolonged intensive ene, and hospimlization, The developmental Olltcome rellccts a handicap rate approaching one,third of all survivors. "When weighing the final outcome, the enormous ongoing medical, financial. and social costs must be considered, . , ' The poor previous reproductive historv of the majonty of the mothers, , ' indicates a need' for preventing or treating the causes of the immature births, rather than expending resources On pro, longed neonatal intenSive care, The implic:ttions and cost,benefit ratios of extending the trend whereby intensive care is applied to progressively smaller immature infants must he seriouslv considered in order jor definitive guidelines to he dwz:md" (italics added), The authors did not comment on the number of teenage moth("rs in the group of 90 rnOlhen;, but 52 were unmarried. Since the number of unmarried teenage mothers is incr("asillg and since thelr infants are frequently underweight, the lack of ethical guideHnes for treating premature infants is certlinly part of the teenage pregnancy i"ue. THE INCREASE IN ONE-PARENT FA:'YfILlES II was noted above that the number of unmarried teen mothers b'15 increased rapidly ,mel that births ro unmarriecl teens accounted for 40 percent of all births to unmarried women. But how many of the post-teen unmarried mothers began Childbearing as unmarried teenagers' The share of births to single parents tilat is attributable to teenage pregnancy may actually be much greater than 40 percent. Senator Daniel Moynihan lUi> been especially

cognlz:lnt of the impact of the increasing number of single·parent t'amilies on society, in tcrms 01 school performance, poverty. and crime In. his book Family (lnd Natiun S he cites ~llan11111g fmdmgs In one studv school performance VI'as reported; :lITIong ali two-parent children, 30 percent were fanl(ed as high achievers, compared to only 1 per cent of one-parent children. At the low end, only 2 [Jercent of two,parent children were low achievers while 40 percent of one-parent chIldren fell 111 that category (929:'», As for poverty, in 1984 there were 33,700,000 Americans living helow the poverty line, Of these, 16,4-iO,OOO lived in female-headed families (96). Moynihan implied that the home life of children of unprepared teenage mothers ,n female-headed households is likely to have tures that make for crimi1l3lity" (98), Looking to the future, it was projected that in the period 19802000, the number of female-headed families will increase at more than five times the rate husbandwife families ([47), Whatever the effects of teen;lge pregnancy and female, headed families-a~d none appear to he favorable-the phenomenon IS on ille increase, THE ABORTION ISSUE

The matter of abortion may be examined in sev eral ways, First, what are the facts, and second, what are the consequences uneler pre,;enr conditions Of in the future if the percentages increase or decrease? Moynihan reports succinctly tbat each year 60 of everv 1000 American women under age elghteen have" 01)ortioI15, In Canada the rate is 18 per 1000, and in The ::-Ietherlamls only 7 of every 1000, Put another way, fully 40 percent of all pregnancies in American teenagers end in aborlion (171), What would be the consequences if the practice were

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encouraged to approach 100 percent? We know tbat making the practice illegal would not reduce the fig~ ure to zero percent ~ This is an issue that has aroused more ethical disagreement than any other in recent times, The goal of preserving the two~parent family and In,crcasing the quality and financial indepen'dence of the children who will become the citizens of the future is at stake, The iSsue is one in which secular ethicists, biologists, and clinicians are confronted by the New Right coalitions of religious Conserva~ tlves who oppose ahottion categorically, Moynihan quoted the obvious when he cited the Ne~1 york Times: "Teenagers need help to avoid pregllilrrcy, and to aVOle! abonion," He then asked "Should IlOI there be a nalional effort to protect children from both?" He noted that in New York City in 198') 1,292 girls under the age of fifteen be';ame pn:g: nant, followed by abortions for 988 (172-73'), It seems inconceivable that any ethical approach to the problem could advocate an end to abonions without agreeing with Moynihan that every effort should be, m,adc to help teenagers avoid pregnancy Yet thiS IS precisely where the ethical crisis is lW)st poignant, Those who oppose abortion most VIolently cannot agree on how teen:1gers shOUld be helped [0 avoid pregnancy, They rend to oppose sex education and increased availability of contra~ cepUves, the two most likely explanations for the low rate of abortions in The Netherlands. On the other hand,. if no help in aVOiding pregnancy is g;Yen, and ;1 abortion is outlawed, will these poli~ (le,s be Willingly coupled with new welfare policies that would help the unmarried teenage mother to complete her education and become employed and able to provide a suitable home thr her of.fspring? Agall1 we turn to Moynihan, who remarks, "The national poliCies we have affecting pr~gnant

teenagers, and those at risk of becoming so, are tIlled with contradictions,., ,We subsidize family planning services for teenagers while encouraging them not to seek them" (172), In noting Ihe para~ doxes in the AFDC program (Aid For Dependent Children), he notes that [here arc few solutions that can be imt in piace as regulations: case~by~case social work is required, In other words, the categor~ leal rules of the religious consefl'