Health, society

Summary of the opinion

The relationship between human health and biodiversity, the living part of nature, is both documented and complex. While biodiversity is a threat in terms of the reservoir of diseases and vectors it contains, it is also an essential source of active molecules, over and above the direct services that ecosystems provide to human health and well-being. Taken together, these factors make biodiversity a major health issue for humanity. However, current knowledge in the life and environmental sciences underlines the sometimes dramatic nature of the erosion of biodiversity, particularly under the pressure of human activities, and the new scale of the human contribution to biodiversity.

In proposing an ethical reflection on humanity's relationship with biodiversity and, more generally, with nature, the CCNE first recalls that humanity is part of biodiversity. Its position within biodiversity and its capacity to modify it require a change in the relationship it establishes with all living beings. The ethical questioning therefore consists in analysing the consequences of our actions and, more fundamentally, in analysing the causes, i.e. the way in which we interact with other members of humanity and with all living beings.

For the CCNE, the ethical approach in the life and health sciences must bring into the public debate questions about the causes of the persistence of poverty and hunger in the world, or the increase in relative poverty and health problems, in relation to the damage to biodiversity, the increase in demographic growth and the increase in migratory flows. Within the living world, humanity's special responsibility means that we must also question the notion of progress, which has so far been equated with increasing control over living things.

This responsibility lies first and foremost with the scientific communities, which are called upon to demonstrate humility in order to better understand the links between biodiversity and health in a context of unpredictability inherent in interacting dynamic processes, particularly those of biological evolution.
At a time when genome-altering biotechnologies are becoming more powerful and easier to implement, it is essential to mobilise an ethic of responsibility in scientific and technological fields.A major ethical challenge is to share all scientific knowledge more effectively with policy-makers and society at large, while at the same time helping to challenge its applications.

The protection and use of biodiversity requires an ethical analysis that is more complex than the sole objective of conserving it, especially as changes in biodiversity are often linked to the vulnerability of many human populations.
An ethical approach and solidarity must be mobilised together to integrate the fight against poverty into the long-term management of natural resources.

We must abandon the utopian vision of a nature enslaved by man and seek synergies between possible human developments and respect for the dynamic processes of ecosystems, both at the local level and through elements of global governance yet to be invented.This will necessarily involve the involvement of citizens, including scientists, in the identification of courses of action for the development of law in this area.

It is on the basis of these ethical issues that this report proposes to seek ways in which humanity can co-evolve in a rational way with all living organisms in order to better preserve their potential for well-being and health.