Theological Discourse in Bioethics: General and Confessional Differencies

This essay is devoted to the problem of theological discourse in bioethics. We focus both on general positions shared across major existing religions and substantial confessional differences among them. Among the major categories determining relationship between bioethics and religion we studied the following: “image of God” (imago Dei), casuistry, primacy of procreation, “playing God”, artificial procreation and others. After analyzing Christian, Jewish and Islamic positions on the theological interpretation of the reproductive technologies and human cloning, we came to a conclusion that differences in views depend rather on orthodox, conservative, traditional or liberal viewpoint within a given church than on differences between particular religions. Despite substantial faith-related differences, occasionally, views on reproductive technologies and other problems of bioethics seem closer between liberal Protestants and liberal Judaists than between orthodox and reformist Judaists.