Hasim Nur Asmadayana, Amin Latifah, Mahadi Zurina, Yusof Nor Ashikin Mohamed, Ngah Anisah Che, Yaacob Mashitoh, Olesen Angelina Patrick, Aziz Azwira Abdul
The Institute of Islam Hadhari, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
Pusat Citra Universiti, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
Sci Eng Ethics. 2020 Jun;26(3):1797-1825. doi: 10.1007/s11948-020-00214-4. Epub 2020 Apr 7.
The Malaysian government recognises the potential contribution of biotechnology to the national economy. However, ongoing controversy persists regarding its ethical status and no specific ethical guidelines have been published relating to its use. In developing such guidelines, it is important to identify the underlying principles that are acceptable to Malaysian society. This paper discusses the process of determining relevant secular and Islamic ethical principles and establishing their similarities before harmonising them. To achieve this, a series of focus group discussions were conducted with 23 knowledge experts representing various stakeholders in the biotechnology community. Notably, several principles between the secular and Islamic perspectives are indirectly or directly similar. All the experts agreed with the predominant six ethical principles of secular and Islamic philosophy and their importance and relevance in modern biotechnology. These are beneficence and non-maleficence as the main or overarching principles, the preservation of religious and moral values, the preservation of the intellect and the mind, the protection of human safety, the protection of future generations, and protection of the environment and biological diversity. Several adjustments were made to the terminologies and definitions of these six principles to formulate acceptable guiding principles for the ethics of modern biotechnology in Malaysia. These can then be adopted as core values to underpin future national guidelines on modern biotechnology ethics. These principles will be particularly important in guiding the policy makers, enforcers, industries and researchers to streamline their activities. In so doing, modern biotechnology and its products can be properly managed without jeopardising the interests of the Muslim community as well as the general public. Importantly, they are expansive and inclusive enough to embrace the religious sensitivity of diverse quarters of Malaysia.
马来西亚政府认识到生物技术对国家经济的潜在贡献。然而，关于其伦理地位的争议仍在持续，且尚未发布有关其使用的具体伦理准则。在制定此类准则时，确定马来西亚社会可接受的基本原则非常重要。本文讨论了确定相关世俗和伊斯兰伦理原则并在协调之前确定它们的相似性的过程。为实现这一目标，与代表生物技术领域各利益相关方的23位知识专家进行了一系列焦点小组讨论。值得注意的是，世俗和伊斯兰观点中的若干原则间接或直接相似。所有专家都认同世俗和伊斯兰哲学的六大主要伦理原则及其在现代生物技术中的重要性和相关性。这些原则是以行善和不伤害为主要或首要原则，维护宗教和道德价值观，维护智力和心智，保护人类安全，保护后代，以及保护环境和生物多样性。对这六项原则的术语和定义进行了若干调整，以制定马来西亚现代生物技术伦理可接受的指导原则。然后，这些原则可作为核心价值观，为未来国家现代生物技术伦理准则提供支撑。这些原则对于指导政策制定者、执法者、企业和研究人员规范其活动尤为重要。通过这样做，现代生物技术及其产品能够得到妥善管理，同时又不会损害穆斯林社区以及广大公众的利益。重要的是，它们具有足够的扩展性和包容性，能够包容马来西亚不同群体的宗教敏感性。
