Bioethics Topics

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Bioethics Topics
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Medical Ethics or Bioethics, study of moral
issues in the fields of
medical treatment and research.The professional
fields that deal with ethical issues in medicine
include medicine, nursing, law, sociology,
philosophy and theology, though today medical
ethics is also recognized as its own discipline.
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Medical Ethics
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traces its roots to several early codes of
ethics such as the ancient Greek Hippocratic
Oath, which required physicians above all to do
no harm
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Greek Hippocratic Oath

• The original version is
• I SWEAR by Apollo the physician and Aesculapius,
  and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and
  goddesses, that, according to myability and
  judgment, I will keep this Oath and this
  stipulation-- to reckon him who taught me this
  Art equally dear to me as myparents, to share my
  substance with him, and relieve his
  necessitiesif required to look upon his
  offspring in the same footing as myown brothers,
  and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to
  learnit, without fee or stipulation and that by
  precept, lecture, and every other mode of
  instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the
  Artto my own sons, and those of my teachers, and
  to disciples bound bya stipulation and oath
  according to the law of medicine, but to
  noneothers. I will follow that system of regimen
  which, according tomy ability and judgment, I
  consider for the benefit of my patients,and
  abstain from whatever is deleterious and
  mischievous. I willgive no deadly medicine to
  any one if asked, nor suggest any suchcounsel
  and in like manner I will not give to a woman a
  pessary to

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• produce abortion. With purity and with holiness
  I will pass my lifeand practice my Art. I will
  not cut persons labouring under the stone,but
  will leave this to be done by men who are
  practitioners of thiswork. Into whatever houses
  I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of
  the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary
  act ofmischief and corruption and, further,
  from the seduction of femalesor males, of
  freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with
  myprofessional service, or not in connection
  with it, I see or hear,in the life of men, which
  ought not to be spoken of abroad, I willnot
  divulge, as reckoning that all such should be
  kept secret. WhileI continue to keep this Oath
  unviolated, may it be granted to meto enjoy life
  and the practice of the art, respected by all
  men,in all times. But should I trespass and
  violate this Oath, may thereverse be my lot.

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professional codes of ethics such as the one
written by English physician Thomas Percival in
the 18th century that provided a foundation for
the first code of ethics established in 1846 by
the founders of the American Medical Association
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and the Nuremberg Code for research ethics on
human subjects that was established during the
war crime trials at the close of World War
(1939-1945) in response to the gross abuses in
human experimentation performed in Nazi Germany
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the advent of new medical and reproductive
technologies after the 1950s further complicated
the moral and societal issues of medical research
and practice
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• The four bioethical principles have been
  described as
• Autonomy - respect for the individual and their
  ability to make decisions with regard to their
  own health and future. Actions that enhance
  autonomy are thought of as desirable and actions
  that 'dwarf' an individual and their autonomy are
  undesirable
• Non-maleficence - actions intended not to harm or
  bring harm to the patient and others
• Beneficence - actions intended to benefit the
  patient or others
• Justice being fair or just to the wider community
  in terms of the consequences of an action

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Several of the most prominent issues in medical
ethics research ethics

• defining death medical ethics struggled to
  define death in a new way, so that the gravely
  ill would have the right to live maintained by
  technology, while those who had technically died
  would not be maintained on life-support machines

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brain death
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a/ In the United States many states have adopted
legislation formally recognizing brain death the
loss of brain function, which controls
respiration and heartbeat
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b/ most European nations, Canada, Australia, and
Central and South American nations define death
either as the loss of all independent lung and
heart function or the permanent and irreversible
loss of all brain function
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reproductive medicine

• Infertility is also an important area of
  medical ethics. Many couples who are unable to
  have children turn to fertility-enhancing
  technologies for help. Artificial insemination
  (introduction of semen into the cervix through
  technical means rather than sexual intercourse)
  raised new ethical issues about how potential
  parents should choose sperm or egg donors, on
  what basis and with what assurances of privacy
  should donors be requited, and whether donors are
  entitled to parental rights of financial
  compensation.

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Assisted reproductive technology (ART)
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In vitro fertilization (IVF) (a method in which
fertilization of the ovum with sperm was
conducted in a laboratory and the resulting
embryo was subsequently implanted in the mothers
uterus). It was soon followed by the development
of a variety of other IVF

• Surrogate mother

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Single women The possible use of donor sperm
by single women

• Lesbian women
• The possible use of donor sperm by lesbian women

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Ethical questions connected with (ART)
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(IVF) procedure may be not successful

• doctors may fertilize and implant more than one
  embryo to increase the chances of success. It
  increases the incidence of multiple births, which
  can create a health risk for mother and babies

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multiple pregnancies doctors can abort 1 or
more of the embryos to improve the chances that
the others will survive

• what to do with fertilized eggs that are not
  implanted and the fate of human embryos if the
  couples who created them died, become
  incapacitated, or no longer want to have children

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the debate is further complicated by the use of
tissues and organs from aborted fetuses for
research or transplantation.
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New kinds of reproduction
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Scottish veterinary biologist Ian Wilmot
announced the successful birth of a cloned sheep.
The news excited many in veterinary and
agricultural settings, and promised to speed
research on human pharmaceutical by providing
identical test animals. However, it was
immediately apparent that at some point in the
future it might be possible to clone a human
using the same or similar technology.
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policy analysts and ethicists worried of the
possibility that cloning technology might be used
by tyrants of small military forces to create
engineered humans.
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ethicists had emerged who were willing to defend
human cloning. It was argued that cloning is less
morally problematic than families created by
sperm or egg donation, because cloned children
are at least products of their families DNA.
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• Economic Issues

Society Versus the IndividualFuture Directions
In Medical Ethics
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Bioethics 1998 from Encyclopedia Americana
AnnualThe art of Medicine
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The Business of MedicineBioethics 1997 from
Encyclopedia Americana AnnualAssisted
SuicideAlternative Medicine