What is Bioethics?

Week 1 – Methods and Motivations

What are we studying?

What are we studying?

What are we studying?

Bioethics

• A Simple Definition: The ethics of medical and biological research

• A Bit More Interesting: – When are we allowed to conduct painful and risky

medical research on someone? What about a non-human animal?

– What should a physician do if she thinks her patient is making the wrong medical decision? Should she even give her patient options at all?

– Who gets to decide who lives and who dies? Should physicians help patients die if they ask for it?

– What is a physician’s obligation to society as compared to her obligation to her patient?

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Omelas and Medicine

• The Individual and Society: The child’s existence is for “the greater good” – one must suffer so that the rest may live in perfect happiness– Questions of AUTONOMY: Can we force someone to

sacrifice themselves for the greater good?– Questions of JUSTICE: We can and do sometimes

restrict individual freedom for the sake of society at large – you cannot yell ‘FIRE’ in a crowded room – but when are such restrictions and infringements justified?

• These questions arise in medicine…

Omelas and MedicineMedical Research on children almost never benefits the children who are the research subjects – They suffer in the HOPE that someone else will benefit!

Omelas and MedicineMedical Research on children almost never benefits the children who are the research subjects – They suffer in the HOPE that someone else will benefit!

Medical resources are finite. Cases of futility and triage are clearly cases of deciding who lives and who dies. Who decides? How? What about elective use of medical resources?

Omelas and MedicineMedical Research on children almost never benefits the children who are the research subjects – They suffer in the HOPE that someone else will benefit!

Medical resources are finite. Cases of futility and triage are clearly cases of deciding who lives and who dies. Who decides? How? What about elective use of medical resources?

Determinations about who is and who is not capable of making medical decisions greatly alters what can and cannot be done. But how do we make those determinations?

Moral DistressAccording to Brown, 15-25% of nurses quit their profession due to moral distress – anxiety, fatigue, and hopelessness felt by medical professionals in the face of competing ethical, legal and professional demands.

We want to EXAMINE, ANALYZE and UNDERSTAND the sorts of ethical obligations and ethical conflicts that arise in the medical practice and research settings.With better understanding we are in a better position, as practitioners, consultants and patients, to combat the anxiety inherent in the medical field and the conflicts that arise.

Treatment and CareCARE involves a feeling of concern for another; the nurses in Brown’s discussion CARED for the young man with cancer.TREATMENT involves intervening, generally with the hope of improving someone’s condition.

Sometimes care demands one not treat; and sometimes treatment really isn’t beneficial to the person treated.Issues of HARM and BENEFIT are inextricably tied to medical practice