Why Bioethics

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Why Bioethics?
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The Nexus
Where Science meets Society. The influence of
science on all aspect of our lives.
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The Agora
Corporation Government Religious Sectors
Academia Media - Public
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Information - Experts
Too much information Too many experts Distrust
Truth? Policy?
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Current Bioethical Issues

• Check the local news paper
• Stem cells (state, national, international)
• Genetically Engineered Organisms
• Knowing your genes
• In vetro fertilization choosing your child's
  genes and characteristics
• Global warming
• Chemicals exposures human health
• Environmental health

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Convergence of Issues

• Expanding Knowledge of Biological sciences
  genomics, stem cells
• Ability to engineer life
• Vulnerability of Children
• Global issues warming, famine, war
• Policy Approach within an ethical framework
• Social responsibilities
• No technical solutions
• Restriction of freedoms

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ELSI

• Ethical
• Legal / Regulatory
• Social
• Implications or Issues
• What is unsaid or missing?
• Science
• Values
• Politics

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Ethics and Science

• 1860s - Scientific method in medicine, Gregor
  Mendel
• - Penicillin discovered widely used WWII
• 1920s - Lead in gasoline, lead in paint
• - 30 states had sterilization laws on books
• - Tuskegee syphilis study initiated
• - Nuremberg - The Doctors Trial
• - First open heart surgery Chlorpromazine
• - Structure of DNA Watson Crick

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Ethics and Science
60s - Thalidomide, mercury, chronic
hemodialysis, amniocentesis, informed consent,
IRBs 70s - Hastings Center founded, bioethics
defined, Tuskegee noticed, Belmont Report (3
principles), Genentech Inc. founded, awareness of
FAS, sensitivity of developing CNS 80s -
Recombinant microorganism could be patented, lead
is harmful to developing brain 90s - molecular
biology, sequencing of human genome (other
species), Jurassic Park 00s - US stem cell
research restricted 03 - Human cloned?
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Socially responsible white guys?
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Socially Responsibility
What is social responsibility? What are our
responsibilities to society?
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The First Bioethicist
Aldo Leopold
"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the
integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."
- Aldo Leopold, 1949, A Sand County Almanac
---------- 1887 - 1948 ----------
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Limits on Freedom
An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on
freedom of action in the struggle for
existence Aldo Leopold
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The Commons
The Tragedy of the Commons By Garrett Hardin,
Science, 1968
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Technical Solutions
It is our considered professional judgment that
this dilemma has no technical solution. The
Tragedy of the Commons By Garrett Hardin,
Science, 1968
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Problems Solutions?

• Lead and kids
• Fetal alcohol syndrome
• Nuclear disarmament
• Bioterrorism
• Ocean Fisheries
• Persistent chemicals
• The Commons

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Bioethics
Van Rensselaer Potter
"Biology combined with diverse humanistic
knowledge forging a science that sets a system of
medical and environmental priorities for
acceptable survival. Global Bioethics (1988)
-------- 1911 - 2001 --------
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Biomedical Ethics

• Respect for Autonomy
• Nonmaleficence
• Beneficence
• Justice

Beauchamp and Childress, 1994
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Genomic and Ecological Bioethics
The challenge To develop an individual ethical
framework for decisions that supports the long
term maintenance of a globally sustainable ecology
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Knowledgeable Bioethics
The challenge the knowledge of how to use
knowledge for the social good
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Decision making
"All scientific work is incomplete - whether it
be observational or experimental. All scientific
work is liable to be upset or modified by
advancing knowledge. That does not confer upon us
a freedom to ignore the knowledge we already have
or postpone the action that it appears to demand
at a given time. " Sir Austin Bradford Hill
(1965)
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Precautionary Principle
When an activity raises threats of harm to human
health or the environment, precautionary measures
should be take even if some cause and effect
relationships are not fully established
scientifically. Wingspread Conference, 1998.
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Environmental Human Health
Conditions that ensure that all living things
have the best opportunity to reach and maintain
their full genetic potential. Steven G. Gilbert
(1999)
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The Potential of Children
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Power To Discover The Truth
It is not the truth that makes you free. It is
your possession of the power to discover the
truth. Our dilemma is that we do not know how to
provide that power. Richard Lewontin (New York
Review of Books, Jan 7, 1997)
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Why Bioethics?
Questions or Comments?