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Insistent Life DONALDSON RELIGIOUS STUDIES | ASIAN STUDIES | BIOETHICS BAJ Ž ELJ Jainism, perhaps more so than any other South Asian tradition, focuses strongly on the eth- ics of birth, life, and death, with regard to both humans and other living beings. Insistent Life is the first full-length interdisciplinary examination of the foundational principles of bioeth- INSISTENT LIFE ics within Jain doctrine and the application of those principles in the contemporary sphere. Brianne Donaldson and Ana Bajželj analyze a diverse range of Jain texts and contemporary sources to identify Jain perspectives on bioethical issues while highlighting the complex- ity of their personal, professional, and public dimensions. The book also features extensive original data based on an international survey the authors conducted with Jain medical pro- fessionals in India and diaspora communities of North America, Europe, and Africa. “Through an analysis of traditional Jain texts and contemporary voices of practicing Jains, Brianne Donaldson and Ana Bajželj provide important insights from within Jainism to bioethi- cal discussions. When read by healthcare professionals, this work can contribute to their under- standing of the increasingly diverse patient population within their care.” SWASTI BHATTACHARYYA, author of Magical Progeny, Modern Technology: A Hindu Bioethics of Tradition BioethicsPrinciples Jain in the for Assisted Reproductive Technology “Insistent Life fills a scholarly gap by presenting a comprehensive review of the ethical and medical views of Jainism and how they apply to contemporary bioethics. Undoubtedly, this treatment will be welcomed by religious scholars and scholars of Jainism in particular.” DAVID E. GUINN, editor of Handbook of Bioethics and Religion BRIANNE DONALDSON is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies and Shri Parshvanath Presidential Chair in Jain Studies at University of California, Irvine. ANA BAJŽELJ is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Shrimad Rajchandra Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at University of California, Riverside. AN AHMANSON FOUNDATION BOOK IN HUMANITIES A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. INSISTENT LIFE Cover illustration: Śvetāmbara image of the samavasaran. a. Provided by Narendra and Rita Parson. Principles for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS WWW.UCPRESS.EDU BRIANNE DONALDSON AND ANA BAJŽELJ Luminos is the Open Access monograph publishing program from UC Press. Luminos provides a framework for preserving and reinvigorating monograph publishing for the future and increases the reach and visibility of important scholarly work. Titles published in the UC Press Luminos model are published with the same high standards for selection, peer review, production, and marketing as those in our traditional program. www.luminosoa.org The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Ahmanson Foundation Endowment Fund in Humanities. Insistent Life Insistent Life Principles for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition Brianne Donaldson and Ana Bajželj UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press Oakland, California © 2021 by Brianne Donaldson and Ana Bajželj This work is licensed under a Creative Commons [CC-BY-NC-ND] license. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org /licenses. Suggested citation: Donaldson, B. and Bajželj, A. Insistent Life: Principles for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.108 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Donaldson, Brianne, author. | Bajželj, Ana, author. Title: Insistent life : principles for bioethics in the Jain tradition / Brianne Graham Donaldson and Ana Bajželj. Description: [Oakland, California] : [University of California Press], [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020051186 (print) | LCCN 2020051187 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520380561 (paperback) | ISBN 9780520380578 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Bioethics—Religious aspects—Jainism. | Medicine—Religious aspects—Jainism. Classification: LCC R725.55 .D66 2021 (print) | LCC R725.55 (ebook) | DDC 174.2088/2944—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051186 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051187 Manufactured in the United States of America 25 24 23 22 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 परस्परोपग्रहो जीवानाम् parasparopagraho jīvānām The function of living beings is to support one another. Tattvārtha-sūtra 5.21 Contents Acknowledgments ix Note on Language and Transliteration xi part one. foundational principles 1. Why Jainism and Bioethics? 1 2. Life, Nonlife, and Karma 12 3. Nonviolence and the Framework of Jain Ethics 44 4. Jainism’s Evolving View of Medicine 75 part two. principles of application 5. Potentials of (Re)Birth 109 6. Wages of Life 147 7. Calculations of Death 182 Epilogue: Multiple Voices and Future Directions in Jain Bioethics 213 Notes 215 References 241 Index 271 Acknowledgments Brianne and Ana would together like to thank colleagues in the Federation of Jain Associations in North America (JAINA) and Young Jains of America (YJA). We also thank Sanjeev Sogani, Kirtida Malde, Reena Shah, Atul Shah, Freya Shah, Mukul Shah, Sagar Shah, and Pradip Jain for circulating our survey, used in part 2; and the many Jain healthcare professionals who completed the survey. Special gratitude also goes to Royce Wiles, Sanmati Thole, Manoj Jain, Nitin Shah, Jina Shah, and Narendra Parson for critical assistance during the project, as well the International School for Jain Studies—especially Shugan Jain and Sulekh Jain—for bringing us together at an early stage in our careers. We are grateful to Reed Mal- colm, our editor, Richard Earles, our copyeditor, and the rest of the UC Press team for all the support and help in bringing this book to light. Brianne would like to thank the UCI Humanities Center at the University of California, Irvine, for a publication support grant; as well as the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University, including Sonia Ryang, Haejin Koh, Amber Szymczyk, Hae Hun Matos, and students in Bioethics and Indian Traditions and India, Conscious- ness, and Science courses (2016–19). Additional thanks go to Pranav Mehta, Matthew Southey, Sunil Kothari, Saadullah Bashir, Fernando Villagómez, Jay Martin, and the Jain Society of Houston community. Special gratitude to Maple and Batmitzvah. Ana would like to thank Tamara Ditrich, Kristi Wiley, and Knut Aukland; her colleagues at the University of California, Riverside; the donors of the Shrimad Rajchandra Endowed Chair in Jain Studies at the University of California, River- side, and the Jain community of Southern California; the Polonsky family, Gabriel Motzkin, Shai Lavi, and the Polonsky Fellows; Yigal Bronner and David Shulman; and her students. She could not have completed this project without her friends, Matic and his family, Tilka, and Rozka. ix Note on Language and Transliteration Jain texts are written in several languages. For the purpose of standardization, we are using Sanskrit for most terms and titles even if they appear in Prakrits or Hindi. For primary sources in the bibliography, readers will find, where applicable, both the Sanskrit and Prakrit titles listed. We are following standard conventions for the transliteration of words from Indic languages. Non-English terms are italicized and all technical terms are explained when they are first mentioned, for which the index will be useful. All translations are ours unless noted otherwise. xi part one Foundational Principles 1 Why Jainism and Bioethics? Jainism is a religious tradition and philosophical system rooted in India whose texts and practices are perhaps more strongly focused on the ethics of life and death than any other tradition in the world. Although it does not offer a thorough- going “bioethics” in the modern sense, Jainism does present a detailed account of birth, life, and death; a meticulous taxonomy of diverse life-forms; a path of ethi- cal conduct characterized by nonviolence toward all living beings; and a complex development of approaches to medical treatment from antiquity up to the present. Some of the bioethical issues faced by contemporary Jains are similar to the ethical challenges faced by Jains throughout history, while others are without precedent and have required creative ethical responses, either because they have arisen as a result of modern scientific and technological advances or because they are emerg- ing in new social and cultural contexts. Considering the rich history of Jain encounters with the dilemmas of birth, life, and death, the absence of a book on Jainism in relation to contemporary bioethical issues presents a significant gap in both the fields of bioethics and Jain studies. This book addresses that gap in two distinct ways, mirrored in its two-part structure. In part 1, we explore foundational Jain principles for bioethics based on rigorous analysis of primary sources and available secondary literature. In part 2, we identify provisional principles of application for modern bioethical dilemmas by examining approaches to specific ethical issues relating to birth, life, and death in primary sources and by analyzing scarce contemporary sources on Jainism and bioethics from modern lay Jains, mendicants, and Jain studies scholars,
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