Bioethics
 Bioethics concerns itself with addressing
ethical issues in healthcare, medicine,
research, biotechnology, and the environment
 Bioethics is sometimes used more generally
to describe ethical issues in the life sciences
and the distribution of scarce medical
resources.
 The term Bioethics (Greek bios, life; ethos,
behaviour)
 coined in 1926 by Fritz Jahr,
Bioethics Principle
 Non maleficence
One should avoid causing harm
 Justice
Benefits and risks should be fairly
distributed
 Beneficence
One should take positive steps to help
others.
 Autonomy
One should respect the right of individuals
to make their own decisions by respecting the
decision making capacities of autonomous
persons.
These principles can be grouped in two levels:
Minimum levels: obligations that generate universal
duties and these involve negative transitive duties
(principles of no maleficence and justice.)
Maximum levels: they are related with the choice of
the vital project that every person choose to depend
on their scale of values. They generate imperfect
obligations: (principles of autonomy and beneficence.)
Ethics of Prenatal Personhood
Person hood
 Entailed the concept of soul, a metaphysical
concept referring to a non-corporeal or extra-
corporeal dimension of human being.
Types of personhood
 Moral personhood
 Metaphysical personhood
 Physical Personhood
 Legal Personhood
Beliefs about the timing of the start of personhood
 At conception
 At cell division
 When blood is present
 Later in pregnancy
 During childbirth
 At birth
ECTOPIC PREGNANCY
 When the embryo implants in the wrong place,
whether the Fallopian tube or the abdomen,
the pregnancy receives the name “ectopic”
(out of place).
SOLUTIONS TO MANAGE ECTOPIC PREGNANCY
 first treatment involves the use
of methotrexate
-which, when used, targets rapidly growing
cells, causing their death
 Salpingostomy
-consists of making a cut along the
Fallopian tube and removing the embryo
 Salpingectomy
- An ethical correct solution that consists of
removing the tube itself, which contains the
embryo nested within it.
 “Expectant management”
-monitoring the pregnant mother, with the
intention of operating urgently when the tube
ruptures, in order to minimize her risk.
EUTHANASIA
• Greek word 'EUTHANATOS' which means
death
• or mercy killing is the direct murder of another
human being
• termination of a very sick person's life to
relieve them from sufferings
Extraordinary means
- are additional or artificial ways of extending one's
life.
A living will,
-also called a directive to physicians or advance
directive, is a document that lets people state their
wishes for end-of-life medical care, in case they
become unable to communicate their decisions.
PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT Human cloning
 This principle aims to provide specific  often refers to human reproductive
guidelines for determining when it is cloning to produce a genetic copy of an
morally permissible to perform an action existing person.
in pursuit of a good end in full
knowledge that the action will also bring
about bad results.
Child-Bearing Enhancements, Self
Improvement and General Well-Being
The Genome Projects
 The genome project is an international
project aimed at obtaining a detailed
map and a complete DNA 2sequence of
the genome of a variety organisms,
Reproductive enhancements
 - include embryo selection by
preimplantation genetic diagnosis,
cytoplasmic transfer, and in vitro-
generated gametes.
Physical enhancements
 - include cosmetics, drug-induced,
functional, medical and organ
replacements and strength training.
Stem cell technology
 is a rapidly developing field that
combines the efforts of cell biologists,
geneticists, and clinicians and offers
hope of effective treatment for a variety
of malignant and non-malignant
diseases. Stem cells are defined as
totipotent progenitor cells capable of self
renewal and multiline age differentiation.
In vitro fertilization (IVF)
 is a complex series of procedures used
to help with fertility or prevent genetic
problems and assist with the conception
of a child.