Bioethics Paper
Bioethics Paper
BY
IMOTER TUGHTUGH
Email: [email protected]
+2348065047535
Abstract
Bioethics is a sub-field of applied ethics. Ethics as a whole is a philosophical field of study that
grapples with questions of what is right and what is wrong, and applied ethics like bioethics
apply those philosophical principles to specific, real-world issues. The broad field of ethics
examines the boundaries of right and wrong. Within this broad field of study, there are several
branches of applied ethics: where ethical analysis is applied to specific controversies and moral
issues. Bioethics is one of the specific branches of applied ethics that studies the ethical
implications of issues in the fields of medicine and life sciences. This encompasses questions
about laboratory topics like cloning and stem cell research as well as more patient-focused moral
conundrums such as the use of life support or physician-assisted suicide. Physicians and
scientists throughout history have wrestled with these kinds of moral questions. The famous
Hippocratic Oath, for example, which guides the ethical decision-making of physicians, dates
back to the 5th century BC. The paper recommends that: there is need to apply strictly the ethical
principle to contemporary issues like genetic engineering, contraceptive technology and artificial
insemination. And scholars must be consistent in assessing the application of these ethical
principles in areas where there are necessary.
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Introduction
Bioethics is the study of the ethical issues arising in relation to biological disciplines.
While focusing to a considerable extent on health care, it has also been taken to include
environmental issues. In addition to being an academic field of study, bioethics has had
identified, including the ‘four principles’ of biomedical ethics, narrative ethics, virtue ethics and
feminist ethics, among others. This paper examines the main preoccupation of bioethics.
Understanding Bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues
related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics),
including those emerging from advances in biology, medicine, and technologies (Lolas 120). It
proposes the discussion about moral discernment in society (what decisions are "good" or "bad"
and why) and it is often related to medical policy and practice, but also to broader questions as
environment, well-being and public health ( Sass 280). Bioethics is concerned with the ethical
questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics,
law, theology and philosophy. It includes the study of values relating to primary care, other
branches of medicine ("the ethics of the ordinary"), ethical education in science, animal, and
The specific term "bioethics" was first used in 1927 by Fritz Jahr in his article, "Bio-
Ethics: A Review of the Ethical Relationships of Humans to Animals and Plants." But it wasn't
until the 1960s that bioethics developed as a full-fledged field of study. During this period,
technologies related to medical procedures like organ transplantation and kidney dialysis were
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advancing but were limited in scope and physicians were having to make decisions about which
patients would receive these life-saving treatments. Social movements — especially those related
to civil rights and gender equity — were asking questions about how the most marginalized in
society were being mistreated by systems dominated by the majority culture. These points in
history combined to create conditions under which scientists and laypeople alike were
recognizing the moral imperative for patients to receive better information to take a more active
The discipline of bioethics has addressed a wide swathe of human inquiry; ranging from
debates over the boundaries of lifestyles (e.g. abortion, euthanasia), surrogacy, the allocation of
scarce health care resources (e.g. organ donation, health care rationing), to the right to refuse
medical care for religious or cultural reasons. Bioethicists generally fail to agree among
themselves over the precise limits of their discipline, debating whether the field should concern
itself with the ethical evaluation of all questions involving biology and medicine, or only a subset
of these questions (Lolas 121). Some bioethicists would narrow ethical evaluation only to the
morality of medical treatments or technological innovations, and the timing of medical treatment
of humans. Others would increase the scope of moral assessment to encompass the morality of
all moves that would possibly assist or damage organisms successful of feeling fear.
The scope of bioethics has expanded beyond biotechnology, and while including topics
such as cloning, gene therapy, life extension, human genetic engineering, it can also include
astroethics and life in space, and manipulation of basic biology through altered DNA, XNA and
proteins (Freemont and Kitney 34). These (and other) developments may affect future evolution
and require new principles that address life at its core, such as biotic ethics that values life itself
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at its basic biological processes and structures, and seeks their propagation (Mautner 433).
Moving beyond the biological, issues raised in public health such as vaccination and resource
allocation have also encouraged the development of novel ethics frameworks to address such
challenges. A study published in 2022 based on the corpus of full papers from eight main
bioethics journals demonstrated the heterogeneity of this field by distinguishing 91 topics that
have been discussed in these journals over the past half a century (Bystranowski et al 902).
Principles
One of the first areas addressed by modern bioethicists was that of human
experimentation. The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical
and Behavioral Research was initially established in 1974 to identify the basic ethical principles
that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human
subjects. However, the fundamental principles announced in the Belmont Report (1979)—
namely, respect for persons, beneficence and justice—have influenced the thinking of
bioethicists across a wide range of issues. Others have added non-maleficence, human dignity,
and the sanctity of life to this list of cardinal values. Overall, the Belmont Report has guided
lookup in a course centered on defending prone topics as properly as pushing for transparency
between the researcher and the subject. Research has flourished within the past 40 years and due
to the advance in technology, it is thought that human subjects have outgrown the Belmont
throughout the United States to champion precisely such goals. Professional level versions of
these organizations also exist. Many bioethicists, in particular scientific scholars, accord the
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easiest precedence to autonomy. They trust that every affected person ought to decide which
direction of motion they think about most in line with their beliefs. In other words, the patient
should always have the freedom to choose their own treatment (Entwistle 902).
Medical Ethics
Medical ethics is a utilized department of ethics that analyzes the exercise of clinical
medicinal drug and associated scientific research. Medical ethics is based totally on a set of
values that gurus can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. These values consist of the
Ethics affects medical decisions made by healthcare providers and patients (Horne 588).
Medical ethics is the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to medicine. The four
main moral commitments are respect for autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.
Using these four principles and thinking about what the physicians' specific concern is for their
scope of practice can help physicians make moral decisions. As a scholarly discipline, medical
ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history,
bioethics has a more expansive application, touching upon the philosophy of science and issues
of biotechnology. The two fields often overlap, and the distinction is more so a matter of style
than professional consensus. Medical ethics shares many principles with other branches of
healthcare ethics, such as nursing ethics. A bioethicist assists the health care and research
community in examining moral issues involved in our understanding of life and death, and
resolving ethical dilemmas in medicine and science. Examples of this would be the topic of
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equality in medicine, the intersection of cultural practices and medical care, ethical distribution
of healthcare resources in pandemics and issues of bioterrorism (Hauschildt and De Vries 234).
Medical ethical concerns frequently touch on matters of life and death. Patient rights,
informed consent, confidentiality, competency, advance directives, carelessness, and many other
topics are highlighted as serious health concerns. The proper actions to take in light of all the
circumstances are what ethics is all about. It discusses the difference between what is proper and
wrong at a certain moment and a particular society. Medical ethics is concerned with the duties
that doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers have to patients, society, and other health
professionals.
The health profession has a set of ethical standards that are relevant to various
organizations of health workers and medical facilities. Ethics are never stagnant and always
relevant. What is seen as acceptable ethics now may not be so one hundred years ago. The
hospital administrator is required to have a thorough awareness of their moral and legal
The practice of bioethics in clinical care have been studied by medical sociology. Many
scholars consider that bioethics arose in response to a perceived lack of accountability in medical
care in the 1970s.: 2 Studying the clinical practice of ethics in medical care, Hauschildt and Vries
found that ethical questions were often reframed as clinical judgments to allow clinicians to
make decisions. Ethicists most often put key decisions in the hands of physicians rather than
patients (235).
Bioethicists come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have training in a diverse
array of disciplines. The field contains individuals trained in philosophy such as Baruch Brody of
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Rice University, Arthur Caplan of NYU, Peter Singer of Princeton University, Daniel Callahan
of the Hastings Center, and Daniel Brock of Harvard University; medically trained clinician
ethicists such as Mark Siegler of the University of Chicago and Joseph Fins of Cornell
University; lawyers such as Nancy Dubler of Albert Einstein College of Medicine or Jerry
Menikoff of the federal Office for Human Research Protections; political scientists like Francis
Fukuyama; religious studies scholars including James Childress; and theologians like Lisa Sowle
Cahill and Stanley Hauerwas. The field, formerly dominated by formally trained philosophers,
has become increasingly interdisciplinary, with some critics even claiming that the methods of
analytic philosophy have harmed the field's development. Leading journals in the field include
The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, the Hastings Center Report, the American Journal of
Bioethics, the Journal of Medical Ethics, Bioethics, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal and
the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. Bioethics has also benefited from the process
Recommendations
i. There is need to apply strictly the ethical principle to contemporary issues like genetic
ii. Scholars must be consistent in assessing the application of these ethical principles in
Conclusion
study that grapples with questions of what is right and what is wrong, and applied ethics like
bioethics apply those philosophical principles to specific, real-world issues. The broad field of
7
ethics examines the boundaries of right and wrong. Within this broad field of study, there are
several branches of applied ethics: where ethical analysis is applied to specific controversies and
moral issues. Bioethics is one of the specific branches of applied ethics that studies the ethical
implications of issues in the fields of medicine and life sciences. This encompasses questions
about laboratory topics like cloning and stem cell research as well as more patient-focused moral
conundrums such as the use of life support or physician-assisted suicide. Physicians and
scientists throughout history have wrestled with these kinds of moral questions. The famous
Hippocratic Oath, for example, which guides the ethical decision-making of physicians, dates
8
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