BIOETHICS

Ferrera & Padilla

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01
Introduction
Short recap of Ethics

02
Bioethics
Brief explanation of Bio and
Ethics

03
Principles
The four principles
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

04
Scopes of Bioethics
Scopes of bioethics

05
Issues of Bioethics
The 5 major issues of
bioethics

06
Analysis
Case Analysis
 Bio Ethics
Life or Living The branch of knowledge
that deals with moral
principles.
Bioethics
 Bioethics

Bioethics Is the study of the ethical issues

emerging from advances in biology and
medicine
 Bioethics
❖ Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the
relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics,
law, and philosophy. It includes the study of values relating to primary

C
care and other branches of medicine

❖ Bioethics also helps establish a common ground for different views, the
democratic process being facilitated by the principle of giving equal
and fair consideration to all sides or aspects of a given issue concerning
human, animal or environmental rights.
Principles Of

Bioethics
 Four Principles of Bioethics
Autonomy Beneficence
01 02

Non-Malfeasance Justice

03 04
 Autonomy
The rights of the individual to make decisions regarding their
own health must be respected
 Autonomy
❖ Any notion of moral decision-making assumes that rational agents are involved in
making informed and voluntary decisions. In health care decisions, our respect for
the autonomy of the patient would, in common parlance, imply that the patient has

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the capacity to act intentionally, with understanding, and without controlling
influences that would mitigate against a free and voluntary act. This principle is
the basis for the practice of "informed consent" in the physician/patient transaction
regarding health care.
 Beneficence
Healthcare provides must strive to benefit their patients
 Beneficence
❖ The ordinary meaning of this principle is that health care providers have a duty to be of a
benefit to the patient, as well as to take positive steps to prevent and to remove harm from the
patient. These duties are viewed as rational and self-evident and are widely accepted as the
proper goals of medicine. This principle is at the very heart of health care implying that a
C suffering supplicant (the patient) can enter into a relationship with one whom society has
licensed as competent to provide medical care, trusting that the physician’s chief objective is
to help.  The goal of providing benefit can be applied both to individual patients, and to the
good of society as a whole. For example, the good health of a particular patient is an
appropriate goal of medicine, and the prevention of disease through research and the
employment of vaccines is the same goal expanded to the population at large.
 Non-Malfeasance
Healthcare provides must not hurt their patients
 Non-Malfeasance
❖ The principle of non-maleficence requires of us that we not intentionally create a harm or
injury to the patient, either through acts of commission or omission. In common language, we
consider it negligent if one imposes a careless or unreasonable risk of harm upon another.
Providing a proper standard of care that avoids or minimizes the risk of harm is supported not
C only by our commonly held moral convictions, but by the laws of society as well. This
principle affirms the need for medical competence. It is clear that medical mistakes may
occur; however, this principle articulates a fundamental commitment on the part of health
care professionals to protect their patients from harm.
 Justice
The even distribution of benefits and risks throughout
society. Patients should share (more or less) equally in the
costs and benefits of the healthcare system
 Justice
❖ Justice in health care is usually defined as a form of fairness, or as Aristotle once said, "giving
to each that which is his due." This implies the fair distribution of goods in society and
requires that we look at the role of entitlement. The question of distributive justice also seems
to hinge on the fact that some goods and services are in short supply, there is not enough to go
C around, thus some fair means of allocating scarce resources must be determined.
 Justice
❖ It is generally held that persons who are equals should qualify for equal treatment. This is borne out in
the application of Medicare, which is available to all persons over the age of 65 years. This category
of persons is equal with respect to this one factor, their age, but the criteria chosen says nothing about
need or other noteworthy factors about the persons in this category. In fact, our society uses a variety
of factors as criteria for distributive justice, including the following:
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 To each person an equal share

 To each person according to need
 To each person according to effort
 To each person according to contribution
 To each person according to merit
 To each person according to free-market exchanges
 Scopes
Of
Bioethics
 The scope of Bioethics has expanded to include the ethical
questions raised by

02 04 06

Stem cell Artificial reproductivePre-implantation geneticThe synthesis of new The possibility of

Human Genome Project research technologies diagnosis life-forms successful
reproductive cloning

01 03
05
 Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project is an ambitious research effort
aimed at deciphering the chemical makeup of the entire
human genetic code (i.e., the genome). The primary work
of the project is to develop research tools that will allow
scientists to identify genes involved in both rare and
common diseases.
 Stem cell research
Researchers hope stem cell studies can help to: Increase
understanding of how diseases occur. By watching stem
cells mature into cells in bones, heart muscle, nerves, and
other organs and tissue, researchers may better understand
how diseases and conditions develop.
 Artificial reproductive technologies
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is used to treat
infertility. It includes fertility treatments that handle both
eggs and sperm. It works by removing eggs from the
ovaries.
 Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a laboratory
procedure used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization
(IVF) to reduce the risk of passing on inherited
conditions.
 The synthesis of new life-forms
Synthetic biology is a scientific discipline that aims to
rationally engineer living organisms, typically with
genetic engineering approaches
 The possibility of successful
reproductive cloning
Organism cloning (also called reproductive cloning) refers to
the procedure of creating a new multicellular organism,
genetically identical to another.
 Issues
Of
Bioethics
 5 Major Issues
Abortion Euthanasia

Eugenics

Human Stem Cell

Cloning Research
 Abortion
Abortion is the removal of a fetus or embryo from a woman’s
uterus resulting in the termination of a pregnancy. The
controversy over abortion is actually a greater debate over
when life truly begins
 Abortion
Pro-choice bioethicists place emphasis on the ability of a woman to have
power over her own body while anti-choice supporters believe life
begins at conception.

As the public and political debates over abortion are overwhelmed by

religious beliefs, pro-life bioethicists are generally secular in their
reasons and merely view a fetus as a human life
 Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the act of purposefully ending a life to eliminate
untreatable suffering. It brings up the preserving and what lengths should
be taken to preserve said life.

Supporters of euthanasia view the course of action as a relief to unnecessary

suffering if a patient it going to succumb to an incurable disease either
way. However, opponents view life as sacred and fear slippery slope into
allowing treatable patients to die of their own well.
 Eugenics
Eugenics is a type of DNA manipulation that creates selective breeding to improve
the human race. Bioethicists who support gene selection obviously want to
see the advancement of the species along with the extinction of certain
genetic diseases. However, critics are worried about the slippery slope that
could occur. Since eugenics has been associated and discredited by the Nazis
radical experiments to achieve an Aryan race, many opponents worry that one
race will be deemed inferior and eradicated. This of course is the extreme
argument, but opponents debate that eugenics could lead to discrimination
against certain races, disabled individuals, or even hair color.
 Human Cloning
Human cloning is the scientific production of an identical human cell, tissue, or entire
body. Bioethicists that support human cloning see the benefits of regenerative
medicine in terms of organ or tissue donation. This would eliminate the risk of a
body rejecting a transplant and the issue of scarcity of organs and tissues to be
donated. Critics fear that the process will produce an onslaught of severely
disabled children since the cloning process has not been perfected. As well, they
fear that cloning humans for their body parts will produce human farming and the
killing of clones for their vital organs
 Stem Cell Research
Stem cells are capable of multiplying themselves through mitotic cell division and embryonic
stem cells even possess the ability to differentiate into a range of specialized cell types.
This makes them incredibly valuable to disease research. The controversy surrounds the
use of these embryonic cells. Supporters see the potential this research has in curing
diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. As well, the majorities of embryos used for research
are left over from in-vitro fertility treatments and are on their way to being destroyed
anyways. However, most of the opponents are also pro-life on abortion. They see the
embryos as the potential for new life and destruction of such embryos as the destruction of
life.
Analysis
 ❖ Suppose a trolley is running out of control
down a tract. In its path are 5 people who
have been tied to the tract. Fortunately, you
can flip a switch, which will lead the
C trolley down a different tract to safety.
Unfortunately, there is a single person tied
to that tract.

❖ Should you flip the switch?

 ❖ A physician has five patients, each in need of a different organ and will die
without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any
of these five transplant operations. A young man who just got hit by a trolley is
brought into the ER. In the course of assessing his injuries, which are not life-
C
threatening if treated immediately, the doctor discovers that his organs are
compatible with all five of his dying patients.

❖ Would it be justified for the physician to let the patient die to harvest his organs
to save the other five patients?
THANK
YOU!