BIOETHICS

What are Ethics?

Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe
what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to
society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics involves the set of rules that society
has agreed about living with other people for minimums, which are human
rights.

Example:
The standards impose reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing,
murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that
enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty.

What is Bioethics?
The term Bioethics (Greek bios, life; ethos, behavior) was coined in 1927 by
Fritz Jahr in an article about a "bioethical imperative" regarding the use of
animals and plants in scientific research. In 1970, the American biochemist Van
Rensselaer Potter used the term to describe the relationship between the
biosphere and a growing human population.
  Bioethics is a branch of ethics, which is the interdisciplinary study of
problems created by biological and medical progress (micro and
macrosocial level), and its impact on society and value system, both for
now and for the future.
 Ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences,
biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy are dealt with in
bioethics. It includes the study of values relating to primary care and
other branches of medicine.
 Bioethics also helps establish a common ground for different views. The
democratic process is facilitated by the principle of giving equal and fair
consideration to all sides or aspects of a given issue concerning human,
animal, or environmental rights.

Principles of Bioethics:
Bioethics is based upon four main principles.
1: Autonomy
The rights of the individual to make decisions regarding their health must be
respected.
2: Beneficence:
Healthcare providers must strive to benefit their patients.
3: Non-Malfeasance:
Healthcare providers must not hurt their patients.
4: Justice:
Patients should share (more or less) equally in the costs and benefits of the
healthcare system.

SCOPE OF BIOETHICS:
The scope of bioethics has expanded to include the ethical questions raised by
1. Artificial reproductive technologies
 2. Stem cell research
3. Human Genome Project
4. The possibility of successful reproductive cloning
5. The synthesis of new life-forms
6. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis

5 Major Issues:

1: Abortion:
Abortion is the removal of a fetus or embryo from a woman's uterus resulting
in the termination of a pregnancy. The controversy over abortion is a greater
debate over when life truly begins. Pro-choice bioethicists emphasize the
ability of a woman to have power over her own body while anti-choice
supporters believe life begins at conception. As the public and political debates
over abortion are overwhelmed by religious beliefs, pro-life bioethicists are
generally secular in their reasons and merely view a fetus as human life.
2: Euthanasia:
Euthanasia refers to the act of purposefully ending a life to eliminate
untreatable suffering. It brings up the question of what constitutes a life worth
preserving and what lengths should be taken to preserve said life. Supporters
of euthanasia view the course of action as a relief to unnecessary suffering if a
patient is going to succumb to an incurable disease either way. However,
opponents view life as sacred and fear a slippery slope into allowing treatable
patients to die of their well.

3: Eugenics:
Eugenics is a type of DNA manipulation that creates selective breeding to
improve the human race. Bioethicists who support gene selection want to see
the advancement of the species along with the extinction of certain genetic
diseases. However, critics are worried about the slippery slope that could
occur. Since eugenics has been associated with and discredited by the Nazis’
radical experiments to achieve an Aryan race, many opponents worry that one
race will be deemed inferior and eradicated. This of course is the extreme
argument, but opponents debate that eugenics could lead to discrimination
against certain races, disabled individuals, or even hair color.

4: Human Cloning:
Human cloning is the scientific production of an identical human cell, tissue, or
entire body. Bioethicists that support human cloning see the benefits of
regenerative medicine in terms of organ or tissue donation. This would
eliminate the risk of a body rejecting a transplant and the issue of scarcity of
organs and tissues to be donated. Critics fear that the process will produce an
onslaught of severely disabled children since the cloning process has not been
perfected. As well, they fear that cloning humans for their body parts will
produce human farming and the killing of clones for their vital organs.

5: Stem Cell Research:

Stem cells are capable of multiplying themselves through mitotic cell division
and embryonic stem cells even possess the ability to differentiate into a range
of specialized cell types. This makes them incredibly valuable to disease
research. The controversy surrounds the use of these embryonic cells.
Supporters see the potential this research has in curing diseases such as
Parkinson's Disease. As well, the majority of embryos used for research are left
over from in vitro fertility treatments and are on their way to being destroyed
anyway. However, most of the opponents are also pro-life on abortion. They
see the embryos as the potential for new life and the destruction of such
embryos as the destruction of life.
 Cases Analysis:
1. Suppose a trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5
people who have been tied to the track. Fortunately, you can flip a
switch, which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety.
Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track.
Should you flip the switch?

2. A physician has five patients, each in need of a different organ, and will
die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to
perform any of these five transplant operations. A young man who just
got hit by a trolley is brought into the ER. In the course of assessing his
injuries, which are not life-threatening if treated immediately, the
doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying
patients.
Would it be justified for the physician to let the patient die to harvest his
organs to save the other five patients?

3. Singapore has 7 % GST and people get free medical treatment, but
Indians do not get it despite paying 28% GST. Parents were forced to
watch helplessly as 64 children and babies die at an Indian hospital as
oxygen supply is suddenly cut off over an unpaid bill

Islamic Bioethics
Bioethics in the realm of Islam differs from Western bioethics, but they share
some similar perspectives viewpoints as well. Western bioethics is focused on
rights, especially individual rights. Islamic bioethics focuses more on religious
duties and obligations, such as seeking treatment and preserving life. Islamic
bioethics is heavily influenced and connected to the teachings of the Qur'an as
well as the teachings of Prophet Muhammad. These influences essentially
make it an extension of Shariah or Islamic Law. In Islamic bioethics, passages
from the Qur'an are often used to validate various medical practices. For
example, a passage from the Qur'an states "whosoever killeth a human being
… it shall be as if he had killed all humankind, and whosoever saveth the life of
one, it shall be as if he saved the life of all humankind." This excerpt can be
used to encourage using medicine and medical practices to save lives, but can
also be looked at as a protest against euthanasia and assisted suicide. A high
value and worth are placed on human life in Islam, and in turn, human life is
deeply valued in the practice of Islamic bioethics as well. Muslims believe all
human life, even one of poor quality, needs to be given appreciation and must
be cared for and conserved.
To react to new technological and medical advancements, informed Islamic
jurists regularly will hold conferences to discuss new bioethical issues and
come to an agreement on where they stand on the issue from an Islamic
perspective. This allows Islamic bioethics to stay pliable and responsive to new
advancements in medicine. The standpoints taken by Islamic jurists on
bioethical issues are not always unanimous decisions and at times may differ.
There is much diversity among Muslims varying from country to country, and
the different degrees to which they adhere by Shariah. Differences and
disagreements in regards to jurisprudence, theology, and ethics between the
two main branches of Islam, Sunni, and Shia, lead to differences in the
methods and ways in which Islamic bioethics is practiced throughout the
Islamic world. An area where there is a lack of consensus is brain death. The
Organization of Islamic Conferences Islamic Fiqh Academy (OIC-IFA) holds the
view that brain death is equivalent to cardiopulmonary death, and
acknowledges brain death in an individual as the individual being deceased. On
the contrary, the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences (IOMS) states that
brain death is an "intermediate state between life and death" and does not
acknowledge a brain dead individual as being deceased.
Islamic bioethicists look to the Qur'an and religious leaders regarding their
outlook on reproduction and abortion. It is firmly believed that the
reproduction of a human child can only be proper and legitimate via marriage.
This does not mean that a child can only be reproduced via sexual intercourse
between a married couple, but that the only proper and legitimate way to
have a child is when it is an act between husband and wife. It is okay for a
married couple to have a child artificially and from techniques using modern
biotechnology as opposed to sexual intercourse, but to do this out of the
context of marriage would be deemed immoral.
Islamic bioethics is strongly against abortion and strictly prohibits it. The IOMS
states that "from the moment a zygote settles inside a woman's body, it
deserves a unanimously recognized degree of respect." Abortion may only be
permitted in unique situations where it is considered to be the "lesser evil."

References:

 https://quora.com/topic/Bioethics
 https://www.slideshare.net/RIZWANABBAS3/introduction-to-bioethics
 https://www.slideshare.net/Azharudeeen/bioethics-81276479
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioethics#:~:text=Bioethics%20is%20the
%20study%20of,as%20environment%20and%20well%2Dbeing.
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/bioethics
 https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/index.cfm