Solidarity as a global bioethical principle: Own reasons for a culture of solidarity from a Protestant perspective

Abstract

In the development and acceptance of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR), the Protestant faith tradition was not involved in the consultation process (other traditions were indeed consulted). This brings the universality (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] perspective) as well as the acceptability of the declaration and its principles (civic perspective) into question. To address this issue, it is necessary to involve the Protestant tradition in the discourse by presenting own reasons to support the universal principles in the declaration (theological perspective). In order to achieve the aim, two facets of Article 13 will be studied. In the first place, to present satisfactory own reasons, it is important to investigate and construe beforehand what UNESCO’s understanding is of the content of Article 13 of the declaration. In the second place, with sufficient understanding of Article 13, a theological evaluation and grounding will be undertaken. From a broad Protestant perspective, this discourse has shown that solidarity as a shared value can be grounded in a Trinitarian approach. It is clear that Article 13 of the UDBHR can be grounded in a broad Protestant social teaching; therefore, the call for solidarity can be encouraged, wholeheartedly supported and executed.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This study gives attention to global bioethics and human rights, an underdeveloped subject within the field of theological ethics. The study overlaps with political science, philosophy (global ethics) and human rights. It joins the discussion in this discipline and supports the promotion of solidarity within this field, which is very important within the health sector in South Africa.

Revisiting traditional male initiation in South Africa: A global bioethical perspective on reproductive health and culture practices

“…Methodologically, attention will be given to the following two matters in the statement of Behrens, namely first, the status, and second, the order of respect for culture. For a theological perspective on Article 12 of the UDBHR, see the article of Rheeder (2017).…”

“…The UDBHR presents the concepts of 'cultural diversity and pluralism in […] Article 12' (Alvarez 2016;Rheeder 2017:3). Rheeder (2017) Culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs […]. Culture takes diverse forms across time and space.…”

“…First, there are a human rights viewpoint and second, a functional viewpoint presented as reasons for the injunction to give due regard to cultural practices. With regard to the human rights viewpoint, the Bioethics Core Curriculum 1 of UNESCO states that Article 12 is associated as follows (Rheeder 2017):…”

Addressing environmental justice: Virtue ethics, social work, and social welfare

“…Solidarity, however, requires us to see interests as shared. We must see that the suffering of others reflects flaws in our social fabric, failures of the systems we all live within: “… the focus of solidarity is not only on the vulnerable human being, groups or the community but also on protecting and developing any existing good social order, which has an inherent potential vulnerability” (Rheeder, 2018, p. 4). If our collective systems such as policies and regulations are not providing protection and support for the most vulnerable among us, these systems are not working: “… a consistent ethic of solidarity would argue that inclusion and economic security for all are the measures of economic health and the criteria for economic decision‐making” (Cupich, 2017, p. 7).…”

Environmental protection as a global bioethical principle: Protestant faith tradition in conversation with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

“…This article forms part of a larger academic project in which I am investigating the UDBHR theologically. I have already discussed the above two reasons in great depth elsewhere (Rheeder 2017(Rheeder , 2018(Rheeder , 2019a(Rheeder , 2019b and will, therefore, only present a brief overview of them here. It is important from a UNESCO perspective that the UDBHR should have the widest possible support, which would undeniably contribute to its credibility.…”