Bio Medical Ethics

Definition

• Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy.

History & background

• Although bioethical issues have been debated since ancient times, and public attention briefly focused on the role of human subjects in biomedical experiments following the revelation of Nazi experiments conducted during World War II, the modern field of bioethics first emerged as an academic discipline in Anglophone societies in the 1960s.

Advance in Health Care

• Advances in health care have increased the need to be diligent in monitoring experimentation, development and use of medical procedures.

• The Question is: Just because it can be done, do we need to do it? An example of this would be invitro-fertilization, abortions, or cloning organs.

Technological Advances

• Technological advances in such diverse areas as organ transplantation and end-of-life care, including the development of kidney dialysis and respirators, posed novel questions regarding when and how care might be withdrawn.

• When is okay to pull the plug?• When does quality of life mean more then

quantity.

A New Direction

• The publication of Principles of Biomedical Ethics by James F. Childress and Tom Beauchamp —the first American textbook of bioethics—marked a transformative moment in the discipline.

Cases that Brought Attention to the Issue

• In the following years after the publishing of Principles of Biomedical Ethics , bioethical issues gained widespread attention through the court cases surrounding the deaths of Karen Ann Quinlan, Nancy Cruzan and Terri Schiavo

Various Issues to Debate

• The field of bioethics has addressed a broad swath of human inquiry, ranging from debates over the boundaries of life (e.g. abortion, euthanasia), Surrogacy to the allocation of scarce health care resources (e.g. organ donation), health care rationing) to the right to turn down medical care for religious or cultural reasons.

Some Pro/Con ?’s To Think About

• Do people have the right to clone themselves or their organs?

• Do people have the right to refuse medical care for themselves or their children because of their religious beliefs (Christian Scientists for example)?

• Should Embryonic Stem Cell research be conducted?

Topics to Investigate for this Topic

• Biopiracy-stealing organs/resources from people or countries.

• Genetically modified foods• Human genetic engineering• Cloning • Life support/euthanasia • Organ donation/transplant• Religious views

Current Events

• Stem Cell Research - Research on one kind of stem cell—human embryonic stem cells—has generated much interest and public debate. Pluripotent stem cells (cells that can develop into many different cell types of the body) are isolated from human embryos that are a few days old. Pluripotent stem cell lines have also been developed from fetal tissue (older than 8 weeks of development).

Life Support

• Life support -You are called to the medical ward to see a patient who has worsening respiratory status and may require mechanical ventilation. When you arrive you are informed that, based on many factors including, age, pre-existing quality of life, and negligible chances of 'meaningful' recovery, many members of the medical team feel that admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) would not be appropriate for this patient.

Life Support Debate

• Unfortunately, there are no advanced directives from the patient, and the patient is unable to participate in decision making. On full review you also believe that the patient would not survive ICU admission, and although mechanical ventilation may prolong life it would not correct the underlying illness. You discuss everything with the patient's family and they request ICU admission. You are uncertain about the ethics of providing life support such as mechanical ventilation when you feel that there is no chance of recovery.

Cloning

• The initial explosion in genetic research occurred in the 1970's, when scientists began employing the dynamic talent of plasmids, the simple bacteria that have since become the modern equivalent of the Xerox machine in the geneticist's lab. abuse.

• The outcome proved so disturbing, in fact, that U.S. President Bill Clinton was forced to issue a moratorium on all federally-funded cloning research, just as governments around the globe questioned the unwieldy technology's potential for abuse.

Biopiracy• The commercial development

of naturally occurring biological materials, such as plant substances or genetic cell lines, by a technologically advanced country or organization without fair compensation to the peoples or nations in whose territory the materials were originally discovered.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/biopiracy#ixzz1YmrZFFdJ

Current Events

• US Permanently Bans Patents for Human Embryos

• The United States has mandated a permanent ban in issuing patents on human embryos.  President Barack Obama signed the prohibition into law Sept. 16 as part of a patent reform measure titled the “America Invents Act.” (Christian Post)

China and Bioethics

•

China and poorly researched cell therapies:Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/09/21/china-stem-cell-therapies-offer-heartbreak-for-many/#ixzz1YmuVnlNO

Stem Cell Current Event

• UK medics lead Europe’s first embryonic stem cell trial

• Doctors at Moorfields Eye hospital in London have been given the go-ahead to carry out Europe’s first clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells BBC News

Solutions

• CDC Moves to Make Organ Transplantation Safer

• More thorough donor screening and more advanced organ testing to help protect transplant patients from infectious diseases are recommended in a draft of an updated organ transplant guideline released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (US News and World Report)

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