Introduction to Bioethicss

Objectives:

• Define ETHICS & Bioethics

• Trace the birth and development of Bioethics

Outline

• Definition of Ethics• Definition of

Bioethics• Rationale in the

study of Bioethics• Birth of Bioethics

What is Ethics?• Greek word “ethos” –

behavior or custom that is permanent –”ethics”

• Latin’s “mos” or “moris” – “morals”

• Basic human behaviors that are specific & inherent to human beings

• Natural to human which confers and develops goodness in them

What is Ethics?

• A sense of right & wrong from which human actions proceeds

• Study of the morality of the human act (Moral philosophy)

• Guides both speculative & practical intellect in the acquisition of ethical principles in concrete human conduct

What is Ethics?

• ETHICS is the rational inquiry into what constitutes human happiness in the light of human nature as reflected in human conduct empirically and emphatically observed.

What is Ethics?

• Ethics- study of the end of man and of human acts insofar as they are related to that end.

Outline

• Definition of Ethics• Definition of

Bioethics• Rationale in the

study of Bioethics• Birth of Bioethics

What is BIOETHICS?• “ethics of life” or of life

science • Health care ethics, medical

ethics or life ethics • Application of the basic

principles of ethics to the new possibilities opened by modern biology & biotechnology with regard to human life

• Professional ethics in allied health

» Manlangit

What is BIOETHICS?

• Study of human actions of allied health professionals with regards to human life and towards the patient

Rationale in the study of Bioethics

• To address the perennial ethical problems, issues, dilemmas confronting health workers

• To address legal problems in health care with ethical concerns

• To address the challenge of the modern technology

• To address & enhance professional development & ethical values of the health professionals

Outline

• Definition of Ethics• Definition of

Bioethics• Rationale in the

study of Bioethics• Birth of Bioethics

BIRTH OF BIOETHICS

History of Bioethics• Historical Code • Research Ethics• Clinical Ethics• Emerging

technology

Historical Codes

–Greek Philosophers • personhood & virtues behavior

– Hippocrates (5th cent. B.C.)• Hippocratic Oath – “first do no harm”

Historical Codes

• Oath of Maimonides (1200)– Look upon the sick with

empathy & respect– Accept teaching of elders

with med skills– Work for the benefit of the

mankind

Historical Codes

• Percival’s Code 1794–1st code of medical ethics

adopted by group of professional physicians

• American Medical Association Code –Duties & obligations of

physician to pts & to the society & the field of medicine

Hippocratic Oath (400 BC) “DO NO HARM”

• “and abstain from whatever in deleterious & mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; & in like manner I will not give to woman a pessary to produce abortion.”

THE TURNING POINT:

• The medical profession had confront new questions, raised directly as a result of extraordinary progress being made in biomedical sciences.

Research Ethics:

• Nazi Experiments. 1940s• Tuskegee Syphilis

Experiment (1930 – 1970)

• Jewish Chronic Disease Study (1963)

• Willobrook Hepatitis Study (1963 – 1966) – New York

Research Ethics: Nazi Experimentation 1940’s

• Nazi Doctors’ horrific experimentation on death camp prisoners

• THE NUREMBERG CODE– Recognizes the subject

Research Ethics: Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1930 – 1970’s) • 400 Syphilitic black

men in Alabama (1947) • Denied of tx even after

penicillin was introduced in 1947

Research Ethics:

• Jewish Chronic Disease Study (1963)– Tumor cells were injected

into elderly patients w/o permission

• Willobrook Hepatitis Study (1963 – 1966) – New York– Mentally disable children

were intentionally infected with hepatitis.

Research Ethics

• NATIONAL RESEACH ACT 1974

• National Commission for the Protection of Human Subject of Biomedical & Behavioral Research

BELMONT REPORT 1979• 3 fundamental principles

of biomedical research ethics

• Respect for persons• Beneficence• Justice

• Importance of INFORMED CONSENT

Ethical Concerns From Research• Artificial heart

transplantation– (1960) Dr. Denton Cooley’s

artificial heart -- w/o proper ethical & regulatory overview

– 1980: Dr. Copeland – quality of life

• Xenotransplantation – non human to human

CLINICAL ETHICAL ISSUES• 1960: Kidney Dialysis

machine: “God Squad” – based from value – laden, social worth

• New definition of Death by Ad Hoc Committee at Harvard University 1968

CLINICAL ETHICAL ISSUES• Discussion of Demographic

Explosion

• Contraceptive pill by Gregory Pinkus

• Human Vitae 1968

CLINICAL ETHICAL ISSUES

• Dramatic Shift to civil liberties and individual rights (1960 & 1970s)

• Women demanded greater Privacy in Reproductive Decisions

• Patients demanded control over their treatment decisions

CLINICAL ETHICAL ISSUES

• Dramatic Shift to civil liberties and individual rights (1960 & 1970s)

• Women demanded greater Privacy in reproductive Decisions

• Patients demanded control over their treatment decisions

• Artificial Reproductive technology

CLINICAL ETHICAL ISSUES

• End of Life Issues:• Patient Self Determination Act

of 1991• Advance directives & living will

• Right to Die Movement • Oregon Death Dignity

History of Bioethics• Historical Code • Research Ethics• Clinical Ethics• Emerging

technology

QUESTION:

• Which moral criteria must be applied in order to clarify the problems posed today in the field of biomedicine?

IS IT?

QUESTION:

• Which moral criteria must be applied in order to clarify the problems posed today in the field of biomedicine?

ANSWER: Anthropological Vision

• The answer to this question presupposes a proper idea of the nature of the human person in his bodily dimension.

Criteria to Judge Our Ethical Choices

• Need to be founded in an anthropology that contains the objective truth about man… nature of the person… of his or her truth….

• WHAT AND WHO IS THE PERSON!

Outline

• Definition of Ethics• Definition of

Bioethics• Rationale in the

study of Bioethics• Birth of Bioethics