جزیره علم

Mahdi Movahed-Abtahi

Ontologically, we use some entities such as ‘role’, ‘function’, ‘property’, ‘quality’, and etc to conceptualize the nature and the truth of any phenomena, that indirectly shape our understanding from it. ‘Role’ is the most powerful concept affects on conceptualizing any concept in our epistemic framework and in our decision making process –judicially, ethically, or clinically-. I define role as ‘an abstract concept referring to a function that a creation is created to perform it’. It is a right and a duty, and no anything has permission to avoid a creation from performing its role. Then, other creations anticipate a creation does its role, and the creation will be remonstrated if it has not done.  

Traditionally, human generation has saved through coitus of two kinds of human; a man as a male, and a woman as a female. She becomes pregnant and labors a new human (neonate). There was no difference between coitus of married couple and non-married male and female, satisfied or dissatisfied, woman has a husband or she is a virgin or in menopause, man has another wife or no, man and woman are incest or no. Sexual human production is a set of many natural functions of man and woman that are differentially valued. The central function (role) defines the creation. Pregnancy and labor are the most important functions of a woman. Therefore, ‘creating new human’ is a central role of any woman.

The value of ontological entities and priority of above concepts have faced more attention in philosophy, ethics, theology, and religions: it is important that who control these natural functions and to whom these abstract roles charged with. In fact, assisted reproductive methods ignore marital relation between man and woman and provide opportunity of controlling consequences of role(s) and function(s) in the process of human creation. These consequences are some abstract concepts such as parenthood, motherhood, childhood, couple, and pregnancy. This vertical relation named ‘linage’ and the children named as a ‘generation’: two abstract concepts resulted from natural human functions. Many of these abstracted concepts are important because they distinguish the following important roles:

1.      Husband-Wife role (zujyyat): all married men and women are a couple (horizontal relation).

2.      Maternity role (ommyyat) and paternity role (ubuvvat): they become parents (father and mother) of their neonate (vertical relation).

3.      Childish role (bunuvvat): the neonate is their child (vertical relation).