Table Of ContentHindu Ethics : Purity, Abortion, and
title: Euthanasia McGill Studies in the History of
Religions
Coward, Harold G.; Lipner, Julius.; Young,
author:
Katherine K.
publisher: State University of New York Press
isbn10 | asin: 0887067646
print isbn13: 9780887067648
ebook isbn13: 9780585077888
language: English
Hindu ethics, Body, Human--Religious
aspects--Hinduism, Abortion--Religious
subject
aspects--Hinduism, Euthanasia--Religious
aspects--Hinduism.
publication date: 1989
lcc: BJ122.C7 1989eb
ddc: 294.5/48697
Hindu ethics, Body, Human--Religious
aspects--Hinduism, Abortion--Religious
subject:
aspects--Hinduism, Euthanasia--Religious
aspects--Hinduism.
Hindu Ethics
McGill Studies in the History of Religions:
A Series Devoted to International Scholarship
Katherine K. Young, Editor
Hindu Ethics
Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia
Harold G. Coward
Julius J. Lipner
Katherine K. Young
State University, of New York Press
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 1989 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
For information, address State University of New York Press, State
University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coward, Harold G.
Hindu ethics.
(McGill studies in the history of religions)
Includes index.
1. Hindu ethics. 2. Body, HumanReligious
aspectsHinduism. 3. AbortionReligious aspects
Hinduism. 4. EuthanasiaReligious aspects
Hinduism. I. Lipner, Julius. II. Young, Katherine K.,
1944-III. Title. IV. Series.
BJ122.C7 1988 294.5'48697 87-18075
ISBN 0-88706-763-8
ISBN 0-88706-764-6 (pbk.)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Purity in Hinduism: With Particular Reference 9
to Patañjali's Yoga Sutras
*.
Harold G. Coward
Chapter 2. The Classical Hindu View on Abortion and the 41
Moral Status of the Unborn
Julius J. Lipner
Chapter 3. Euthanasia: Traditional Hindu Views and the 71
Contemporary Debate
Katherine K. Young
About the Authors 131
Index 133
Page 1
Introduction
HAROLD G. COWARD
Modern Western
approaches to India, and in particular to Hinduism, have focused on
metaphysics at the expense of ethics. As a result, Westerners have
often tended to see Hinduism as concerned with the esoteric, the
otherwordly, the mystical, and thus as having a blind eye when it
comes to the ethical issues of daily life. Western religions like
Judaism and Christianity were thought to offer something lacking in
Hinduism, namely, the moral vitality of the Hebrew prophets and the
New Testament. It was this moral vitality that many Christian
missionaries saw themselves as bringing to India to challenge an
ethically lax Hinduism. Sati
* or widow burning and the making of caste distinctions were typical
of the so-called heathen practices singled out by the missionaries for
attack.1
Is Hinduism a religion which is weak or lacking in ethics? The authors
of this book examine this question by analyzing Hindu teaching on
three problems of significance for the modern world: purity, abortion,
and euthanasia. This approach enables the reader to see what
Hinduism has to say about ethical problems which are posing a
serious challenge to modern scholars. In this way, the strengths and
weaknesses of Hindu ethics will be immediately apparent to the
Western Christian, Jew, humanist, or secularist who wrestles with how
abortion, euthanasia, and purity are to be dealt with in our modern
world. In this sense, these essays have importance for today's study of
medical ethics, social ethics, and human rights, in that they provide a
systematic analysis of these problems from the perspective of a quite
different Eastern world view.
Page 2
For the student of Eastern religions, these chapters are important for
their exploration in depth of the ethical foundations present within
Hinduismfoundations which some would say are more basic than the
metaphysics of Sankara
* and Ramanuja about which so much has been written in English.
Recent scholarship has begun to draw attention to the fundamental
position of ethics in Hindu thought. In his Structural Depths of Indian
Thought,2 P. T. Raju charts a new approach for Western graduate
students studying Hinduism. Raju begins with ethics (Mimamsa* and
the Dharmasastras*) and moves from that basis to a consideration of
metaphysics, such as the ontology of Sankara's* Vedanta*. Raju
justifies this approach by noting that past presentations of Indian
Philosophy in English (e.g., S. Radhakrishnan's two-volume indian
philosophy) have subsumed and equated ethics with the theories of
salvation offered by the various schools. "But," says Raju, "such an
equation gives rise, and has given rise to the impression that Indian
thought has no idea of moral and ethical law."3 Raju makes clear the
importance of the distinction for which he is arguing:
It is not justifiable to equate ethics and the theory of salvation . . . From the
ultimate point of view, where there is no "Ought" there is no ethics.
Disciplines for salvation consist of different forms of worship, breath-
control, etc. Nobody is morally obliged to practice them. Most of the
Indian philosophers do not regard such practices as an "Ought" (vidhi). But
moral law is an "Ought" and the Vedantins and even the Mimamsakas*
knew the distinction between values which are only recommended to be
good. Obtaining salvation, like obtaining wealth, is not an "Ought." It is,
therefore, not justifiable to equate ethics and the theory of salvation.4
The 'ought' of ethics (dharma) is foundational for all Indian thought in
that it includes: the ideals for human life in this world, ones relation to
other human beings, the duties of caste (varna*) and the stages of life
(asramas*). Sankara* suggests that his teaching of knowledge
(jnana*) is intended to follow immediately on study of the Vedas
(purva* mimamsa*, the enquiry into dharma),5 and Patanjali*
effectively makes the same requirement in his listing of the bad habits
to be broken (yamas) and good habits to be established (niyamas) as
requirements for the practise of yoga.6 For Jaimini, ethical action
(dharma) is inescapable and is therefore the supreme governing force
of the universe.7
The following chapters on purity, abortion, and euthanasia offer case
study explorations into specific topics of dharma or Hindu Ethicscase
studies which are selected and presented so as to invite comparisons
with modern Western thought to develop in the critical reflection of
the reader. Such comparisons, which are merely suggested here, will
help to remove
