Hippocratic Ethics and Hindu Dharma: Conflict and Recovery
Deepak Sarma, PhD, Philosophy of Religion, Professor of South Asian Religions/ Professor of Bioethics, Case Western Reserve University
The history of medicine in the Indian subcontinent is inseparable from the colonization of India by the British. Indigenous and Hindu medical systems were displaced and even replaced by allopathic ones. The result has been parallel, and often conflicting, worlds: one that adheres to or upholds Hindu and Ayurvedic medical systems, views of the body, and ethics, and one that propounds or is guided by purportedly secular and allopathic perspectives and healthcare economics.
The tensions between these epistemes are often ignored or dismissed but emerge most frequently in situations where the healthcare providers and family members are forced to make decisions about prolonging or curtailing the life of a patient/ practitioner. The ethical obligations that are thus born from the Hippocratic oath often are in conflict with many of the ethical imperatives put forth by Hinduism.
In this short paper I will examine these conflicts, especially as they pertain to end of life care. I will show that in some cases the drive to perpetuate life at all costs in the allopathic context are incompatible with Hindu supported euthanasia, and Hindu ideas about rebirth. Relying on classical Hindu religious texts, I will show that the earlier Hindu views on these, and related, idea, should be recovered and could help to ground the medicine of the future, especially as medical technologies make it even easier, and more plausible, to prolong life.
The tensions between these epistemes are often ignored or dismissed but emerge most frequently in situations where the healthcare providers and family members are forced to make decisions about prolonging or curtailing the life of a patient/ practitioner. The ethical obligations that are thus born from the Hippocratic oath often are in conflict with many of the ethical imperatives put forth by Hinduism.
In this short paper I will examine these conflicts, especially as they pertain to end of life care. I will show that in some cases the drive to perpetuate life at all costs in the allopathic context are incompatible with Hindu supported euthanasia, and Hindu ideas about rebirth. Relying on classical Hindu religious texts, I will show that the earlier Hindu views on these, and related, idea, should be recovered and could help to ground the medicine of the future, especially as medical technologies make it even easier, and more plausible, to prolong life.