Sanitary engineering is burdened by several challenges that attract bioethical attention: there are many ambiguities regarding the definition of the profession; its methodology seems to be a combination of several approaches from different sciences; and it often appears to be an amalgam of different disciplines. We argue that the bioethical perspective helps to show that these features can be taken as a stimulating challenge. Moreover, bioethics may illuminate how these features can become an asset to sanitary engineering in light of (...) the growing need for holistic approaches. First, we present a bioethical analysis of the aforementioned features as a useful way to clarify and strengthen the identity of the profession. Second, we argue that professional ethics have received the least attention, but are crucial to giving the profession stronger independence and professional identity and to creating a unique worldview at the crossroads of environmental and public health ethics. Finally, we propose a general framework of sound professional ethics of sanitary engineering as a necessary step towards rethinking the core values of the profession, clearly articulating a genuine professional ethic, and reforming educational politics related to professional education. (shrink)

The problem of responsibility to future generations is inherently related to responsibility for the environment. Attempting to provide a new grounding for the figuration of such responsibility, Hans Jonas used Immanuel Kant’s ethics as a paradigm of traditional ethics to provide a critique of their limitations in addressing these issues, and he found three crucial problems in Kant’s ethics. Kant’s philosophy provides enough material for an answer to Jonas by building an account which 1) gives a teleological grounding of responsibility (...) for the environment and consequently responsibility to future generations; 2) enables the establishment of collective responsibility towards the idea of moral progress, which includes future generations; and 3) answers Jonas’s challenge by extending moral concerns to other living and non-living beings and especially to future generations. (shrink)

Kantova je teleološka teorija, izložena u drugom dijelu Kritike moći suđenja, nezasluženo dobila slabu recepciju. Jedna je od mogućih plodnih valorizacija te teorije pokušaj njene bioetičke interpretacije. Kantov »produljeni argument«, koji ga od unutarnje svrhovitosti organizama vodi do prirode kao sustava svrha te naposljetku do posljednje i njoj odgovarajuće krajnje svrhe tog sustava, postavlja plodan teren za uspostavljanje važnih bioetičkih poruka vezanih uz ekologiju, i to barem kroz dva momenta. Ljudi moralne svrhe mogu postizati isključivo unutar prirode te samo s (...) obzirom na moralne svrhe tu istu prirodu jedino i koristiti kao sredstvo. Priroda je toliko isprepleten i povezan sustav da čovjek ne smije umišljati mogućnost zahvaćanja svih posljedica koje njegov čin može prouzročiti, a kamoli sposobnost kontroliranja tih posljedica, nego mora biti što umjereniji u svim intervencijama u okoliš. Ove nam poruke pružaju značajan doprinos u gradnji orijentacijskog okvira za pristupanje okolišu.Kant’s teleological theory, presented in the second part of Critique of Judgment, undeservedly received little reception. A possible fruitful valorization of this theory is an attempt of its bioethical interpretation. Kant’s “extended argument” lead him from internal purposivness of organisms to the nature as a system of ends, and finally to the ultimate and final end. This argument sets fruitful ground for the establishment of important bioethical messages related to ecology, through at least two moments. People can achieve moral ends exclusively within nature, and use this same nature as a mean only with respect to the moral ends. Nature is so interwoven and interconnected system that one can not conceit the possibility of comprehending all consequences of his act, let alone the ability to control these consequences, but one must be moderate in all interventions in the environment. These messages give us a significant contribution to the formation of orientational framework for accessing the environment. (shrink)