Bioethics

• “Morality” is used to refer to a set of social conventions about what is right or wrong in human conduct… “Ethics” refers to the field that examines the rationale behind such customs or practices

Another definition

• “The good life”• “The life well-lived”

Ethical Doctrines

• Utilitarianism (act vs. rule)• Deontology • Virtue ethics

Utilitarianism

• Put forth by John Stuart Mill

• That which propagates the most good is the best thing to do

• “The ends justify the means”?

• “Act” utilitarianism vs. “Rule” utilitarianism

Deontology

• Includes ethical theories of Emmanuel Kant

• Only the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves can be judged

• “There are no ends, only means”

Virtue ethics

• Includes ethical codes of Aristotle

• Cultivating personal character is more important than specific rules or codes

Topics in bioethics• Biopiracy• Right-to-life• Right-to-die• Intellectual property• Medical research ethics- animal

research• Human clinical research• Privacy rights• Reproductive rights• Artificial procreation• Genetically modified organisms• Scientific integrity• Confirmation bias• Stem cells• Funding sources

More topics in bioethics• Abortion Animal rights Artificial insemination Artificial life Artificial womb

Assisted suicide Biopiracy Blood/blood plasma (trade) Body modification Brain-computer interface Chimeras Circumcision

Cloning Confidentiality (medical records) ConsentContraception (birth control) Cryonics Disability Eugenics Euthanasia (human, non-human animal) Feeding tube Gene therapy

Genetically modified food Genetically modified organism Genomics Great Ape Project Human cloning Human enhancement Human genetic engineering Iatrogenesis Infertility (treatments) Life extension Life support Lobotomy Medical malpractice Medical research Medical torture Moral obligation Nanomedicine Organ donation (fair allocation, class and race biases) Pain management Parthenogenesis Patients' Bill of Rights Placebo

Population controlPrescription drugs (prices in the US) Procreative beneficence Professional ethics Psychosurgery Recreational drug use Reproductive rights Reprogenetics Sperm and eggs (donation) Spiritual drug use Stem cell research Suicide Surrogacy Transexuality Transhumanism Transplant trade Xenotransplantation

3 interesting topics

• Ethics in reproductive technology

• Intellectual property• Scientific integrity

Reproductive Rights

• DNA, or entire cells, can be extracted from fertilized embryos

• Usually done at 8-cell stage

• More embryos are fertilized than can be used

Intellectual property

• Monsanto v. Schmeiser• Glyphosate-resistant

(Roundup ready”) canola

Bt Corn and the Monarch Butterfly

• Bt toxin is a gene found in a bacterium, Baccillus thurgiensis

• Kills insects• Gene can be

transfected into corn• Does the corn kill

monarch butterflies?