In the course of establishing a human science discipline to study mutual reliance, I kept contemplating on how we should face both the contradiction and the need for integration that arise from the fact that individuals are all definitely different from each other but yet can exist only in relation with others. In the early stage of my new research, I was determined to study not the idealistic but the practical aspect of the theme and thus tried hard to find meaningful, daily-life words that represent the social meaning of mutual reliance among contradicting people. Self determination is one of such words I chose in the effort. Through the exchange of papers on the theme of mutual reliance among young researchers specializing in philosophy, ethics, medicine, and Buddhism, the idealistic and practical aspects as well as the positive and negative aspects of mutual reliance were discussed. In the discussion, however, different people defined the words "mutual reliance" differently and thus they were sometimes very confused and forgot what they were initially talking about. This experience gave me a wider perspective which was beneficial for meaningful discussion on the current issues of bioethics, such as human organs transplant, pre-birth diagnosis, fertility technology, and genetic diagnosis. At the speech, I will introduce the summary of the discussions made in the course of establishing a human science discipline to study mutual reliance, how the experience gave me a wider perspective, what are the issues I'm going to tackle in the future, and how the current and future issues are related to each other. Your comments on or criticisms against my opinions are most welcome.
