Deep Ecology: Contemporary Bioethical Trends
(Review article)
Abstract
Deep ecology emphasizes the importance of the ecological problems as a practical issue, and its importance is in changing the human understanding of everything, including even man’s understanding of who he is.
The aim of this paper was to present deep ecology, what it represents and how it has become a significant ecological movement of the 20th century and to indicate the connection between bioethics as new environmental ethics and deep ecology, as well as other environmental movements which, in the contextualization of bioethics, emphasize changing the outlook on life, giving a better knowledge of it, and allowing questioning of social actions and looking at events from different aspects. The idea is to emphasize that man is not only an active, but also a responsible being which is capable of making a paradigm shift in responsibility, and therefore, taking responsibility for all life on Earth.
Content analysis and comparative method were introduced and applied for the requirements of making this review.
Based on the obtained results, the review points to the need to create new ethics which could introduce a general value system for all living and non-living things - a paradigm shift involving man as part of nature and not opposed to it, and to successfully address these complex issues. It will take a profound shift in human consciousness to fully comprehend that it is not only plants and animals that need a safe habitat - because they can live without humans, but humans cannot live without them.
