Bioethics

Instructor: Ms. Sammar Nathaniel

What Is Ethics and Bioethics

Ethics seeks to determine what a person should do, or the best course of action, and provides reasons why. It also helps

people decide how to behave and treat one another, and what kinds of communities would be good to live in.

• activity of deciding what one should do, as an individual and a member of a community

• Ability to reason your decision (Why?)

Bioethics…….. a subfield of ethics that explores ethical questions

related to the life sciences

Ethics and Morality

• Ethics is a set of moral principles and a code for behavior that govern an individual’s actions with other individuals and within society.

• Morality is what people believe to be right and good, while ethics is a critical reflection about morality.

How Are Bioethical and Scientific Questions Different?

• Scientist • hunt for understanding

nature • “Is “• phenomenon's of life• What are the physical

problems of using steroids

• Bioethicist • seeks what is best to do • “ should”• Should athletes be allowed

to use steroids?

Ethical questions are also different from legal questions and from questions of personal preference, custom, or habit.

Law• Laws are brought about by tension, agitation and conflict

by dramatic situations.• Laws are societal rules or regulations that are obligatory to

observe.• Laws protect the welfare and safety of society, resolve

conflicts, and are constantly evolving.• Laws have governed the practice of medicine for over one

hundred of years.• Laws are mandatory to which all citizens must adhere or

risk civil or criminal liability. • Ethics relate to morals and help us organize complex

information and competing values and interests to formulate consistent and intelligible decisions.

• Law has penalties, bioethics has consequences.

Ethical questions

• Should children with serious birth defects be kept alive?

• Should a woman be allowed an abortion for any reason?

• Should terrorists be tortured to gain information possibly saving hundreds of lives?

• Should health care workers be required to receive small pox vaccination?

Why study Bioethics?

• Developments in life sciences has opened new avenues for questions to be raised

• Where vaccines, genetic manipulations and therapies have paved way in our society , likewise the risks and threats have also escalated.

e.g using pig genes in food industry (ethically wrong for religious bodies)• Imp. to teach masses about morals

• Individual decisions(abortion, medicine usage, diet.. etc.)• Public policy decisions(Distribution of organs, vaccines etc.)• To instill thoughtful choices• Promote respect among people with different

views• Cultivate critical-reasoning

Think like a bioethicist when working

Four key questions when dealing with a situation

• What is the ethical question?• What are the relevant facts?• Who or what could be affected by the way the question gets

resolved?• What are the relevant ethical considerations?

“respect for persons”“minimizing harms while maximizing benefits”

“fairness”“responsibility”

What Is the Ethical Question?

It is different from• Scientific

• Legal• Personal preference

• Moral sensitivity• Moral imagination• Think not with a scientific mind

“something can be illegal yet ethical”• Culture impacts personal choices (privacy)

A distinctive feature of an ethical question is that it usually arises when persons or groups might be

damaged, disrespected, or unfairly deprived.

What Are the Relevant Facts?• Scientific facts are important, and they provide a critical link

between bioethics and the biology curriculum.• Social science facts are equally important

Who or What Could Be Affected by the Way the Question Gets Resolved?

• ensure about the range of individuals, groups, or institutions that may be affected by the outcome.

• see things from multiple perspectives• Prioritize and justify why?

What Are the Relevant Ethical Considerations?• respect for persons, • minimizing harms while maximizing benefits, and• fairness

Core and Other Ethical Considerations

• Respect for PersonsNot treating someone as a ladder to goalNot to interfere in opinion making decision or give positive interestListen and understand without belittling the person’s point of view

• Min. harm Max. benefit Utilitarianism

refers to the positive uses (benefits or utilities) that will come about as a consequence of choosing one path over another.

nonmaleficence (Do no harm)/beneficience (Do good)

• FairnessDistributive justiceSocial justice

”fairness does not necessarily entail equal shares; it usually depends on other factors, too”

Weighing Ethical Considerations

At times it is not feasible or even possible to act in agreement with all the relevant aspects at the

same time.e.g.

would you let your father have cheesy pizza while you know that he is suffering from heart

disease (hyperlipidemia)?

After considering all the essential points and questions , you are now ready to assess any ethical situation and can come to a solid recommendation

which has to be

Justified!!!!!

The strongest justifications are those that give the best possible reasons for a particular conclusion and responses to

counterarguments

While justifying do not ignore

• Moral absolutism• Ethical subjectivism/ Ethical relativism

Research by cognitive psychologists, such as Kuhn,Cheney, and Weinstock (2000), indicates that very few

adults, let alone adolescents, develop critical-reasoningabilities in the ethical domain. Adolescents in particularcan be especially rigid in their thinking. This rigidity cancome in many forms. Some people tend to rely on rulesand often resist delving deeply into the reasons for the

rules or exploring whether there might ever be appropriate exceptions. The insistence on rules without reasons or

exceptions is called moral absolutism.

“It’s a free country; I have a right to my opinion, and you have a right to yours, and there is

nothing more to discuss.” That statement shuts down thoughtful reflection and critical thinking. Ethical relativism is the view that the correct ethical opinion depends on, or is relative to, a particular culture or society.

Controversial Issues of Bioethics

1- Death & end of life 2- Euthanasia 3- Assisted reproduction & surrogacy 4- Abortion 5- Stem cell research 6- Human cloning (therapeutic &reproductive)

• In view of the four key points which we studied today, read the case of Oscar Pistorious ………