Bioethics

Bioethics

Bioethics is a broad subject connecting advances in biological and medical science with moral concerns. Medical ethics is one large part of bioethics but by no means the only part. Bioethics has grown as a discipline precisely as science and technology have increasingly demonstrated that human beings are biological beings. Scientists have mapped the human genome and scanned the human brain. Researchers have evermore precisely shown the neural correlates of mental states, the genetic roots of behavior and illness. Through these developments, serious new ethical questions have been raised about studying and even modifying human biology. Bioengineering has also been used to replace parts of the human body that are no longer working or working well: dialysis kidney function, pacemakers stabilize irregular heartbeat, and respirators keep lungs pumping oxygen. Bioethics as a field is rooted in advances in technology just as is the case with the narrower field of medical ethics.

Broadly speaking, four sorts of issues in bioethics transcend the more restricted confines of medical ethics and the more global issues of environmental ethics. First are those that involve the tension between the needs of the few and possible risks to the many. The best example of this is biomedical research and the issues it poses of need, risk, consent, validity, and conflicts of interest.

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