Search PubMedSearch

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Bioethics”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Policy arguments in a public church: Catholic social ethics and bioethics.

This paper is an analysis of the relationship of social ethics and bioethics in Roman Catholic theology. The argument of the paper is that the character of both Catholic moral theology and ecclesiology shape the broadly defined interest of the church in bioethics. The paper examines the common elements of social ethics and bioethics in Catholic teaching, describes how ecclesiology shapes Catholic public policy and uses the examples of abortion and health care to illustrate the relationship of Catholic social thought and bioethics. In developing the relationship of these two dimensions of Catholic moral argument the article highlights how the appeal to natural law categories differs in social ethics and bioethics and how the two topics are received differently in the theological community. It also seeks to illustrate how the premises of Catholic social ethics remain central to public positions taken on bioethics.

Abortion, Induced

Bioethical decision making: an approach to improve the process.

Current problems with the decision-making process for bioethical dilemmas are described, with emphasis on the social roles taken in this process by medical experts and laypersons. An approach is presented to improve bioethical decision making. Two consecutive steps are required. First, branching logic is used to separate the bioethical dilemmas into a series of independent, sequential decision points along a decision-making tree. This allows complex dilemmas to be dealt with more easily by resolving the individual component issues in a logical, stepwise fashion. Secondly, explicit criteria are used to decide whether each individual component is ethical or technical in nature. Using these two steps increases the likelihood that the professional and the layperson will assume their appropriate social roles and improve the overall decision-making process. How this approach can be applied to policy-making decisions, in addition to case-by-case deciding, is discussed, as are some of the settings in which the approach might be particularly helpful.

Amniocentesis

Moving forward in bioethical theory: theories, cases, and specified principlism.

The field of bioethics has deployed different models of justification for particular moral judgments. The best known models are those of deductivism, casuistry, and principlism (under one, rather limited interpretation). Each of these models, however, has significant difficulties that are explored in this essay. An alternative model, suggested by the work of Henry Richardson, is presented. It is argued that specified principlism is the most promising model of justification in bioethics.

Casuistry

Some additional bioethical questions related to hepatitis B antigen.

Dr. Baruch S. Blumberg has recently raised important questions concerning the bioethics of prevention and cure of hepatitis. This paper extends his inquiry with a view toward examining the full range of the complexity of such issues as the restriction of the use of blood infected with hepatitis B antigen, the screening and possible isolation of health care personnel found to be carriers, and the like. It pointed out that for issues like these, there is not only a conflict between personal liberties and the public interest but also a potential conflict of individual rights, a theme not treated fully by Blumberg. The complex issues that emerge when these two themes are considered together are examined in light of the work of the contemporary American philosopher, John Rawls. His theory permits one to consider these two ethical themes together in analyzing moral problems. In this light, a new strategy is proposed for addressing bioethical questions concerning hepatitis B antigen.

Blood Donors

Bioethics: occupational therapy attitudes toward the prolongation of life.

A comprehensive array of bioethical issues have emerged from advances in biological technology. This report assesses the views of individuals at three occupational therapy levels concerning one such issue: The option of painless death for the incurable. A battery of measures used to study beliefs in occupational therapy students included an item dealing with euthanasia. Item analysis revealed that the mean response to the euthanasia item by groups of occupational therapy juniors, seniors, and supervising clinicians from two schools indicated approval of voluntary painless death for the incurably ill. The article concludes with a discussion of the inclusion of bioethical issues in occupational therapy educational programs.

Adult

Religion, theology, church, and bioethics.

Modern medical ethics developed in America after mid-century chiefly at theological schools, but discourse on bioethics soon moved to the pluralist-secular settings of the academy and the clinic, where it acquired a philosophical and intentionally non-religious cast. An effort was made, on the grounds of 'liberal culture' and 'late Enlightenment rationality' to find a framework for inquiry which aspired to the universal. Today, while that language persists, it coexists with, challenges, and is challenged by forms of ethical analysis and advocacy which take into consideration the 'thickness' of complicating narrative and reasoning based in the many religious traditions. It has become incumbent upon advocates of those traditions to propose 'publicly accessible' argument.

Bioethics

Bioethics and informed consent in American health care delivery.

Bioethics is a multi-dimensional discipline. The traditional aspect being medical ethics, a branch of Western philosophy which, since the time of Hippocrates, has sought to formulate rules of proper conduct for physicians. Ethics and informed consent are interrelated issues. Consent is the central issue on which hangs most of the ethical problems in human experimentation. The informed consent of the human patient is the ultimate protection from the hazards of research and therapy in medicine, the basic premise of this being that every human being has the right to determine what shall be done to his own body. The patient must have full prognosis, complications, sequelae, discomforts, costs, inconveniences, risks and expectations. Medically and ethically what should the patient be told? There appears to be no obvious format, but the patient should be told enough to allow him to make a rational decision. This paper contains an analysis of the reactions of just a few American nurses to this dilemma. The nurse who attempts to use only her scientific training to determine ethical conduct is in a quandary because seldon is there empirical evidence available to support her decision, no matter what it is.

Bioethics

Hazards of solid waste management: bioethical problems, principles, and priorities.

The putative hazards of solid waste management cannot be evaluated without placing the problem within a cultural climate of crisis where some persons consider such by-products of "high, hard technology" to have raised unresolved moral and ethical issues. In order to assist scientific and technical efforts to protect public health and safety, a bioethical perspective requires us to examine three controversial aspects of policy-making about public safety. Failure to recognize the qualitative difference between two cognitive activities-risk-measurements (objective, scientific probabilities) and safety-judgments (subjective, shifting value priorities)-has had three unfortunate consequences. Sophisticated methods of risk analysis have been applied in a piecemeal, haphazard, ad hoc fashion within traditional institutions with the false expectation that incremental risk-reducing programs automatically ensure public health and safety. Ethical priorities require, first and foremost, a whole new field of data arranged for comparable risk-analyses. Critics of cost/risk/benefit quantifications attack the absurdity of "putting a price on human life" but have not been confronted with its threefold ethical justification. The widening discrepancy in risk-perceptions and loss of mutual confidence between scientific experts and ordinary citizens has placed a burden of social responsibility on members of the scientific and technical community to engage in more effective public education through the political process, notwithstanding advocates of a nonscientific adversary process. The urgency of effective public education has been demonstrated by the extent to which we have lost our historically balanced judgment about the alleged environmental hazards posed by advanced technology.

Bioethics

Quality of life in gynaecological oncology. The personalist perspective of bioethics.

Quality of life in gynaecological neoplastic diseases assumes a specific role within the therapeutic choice. Gynaecologists must give attention to the possibility of the patient's identity crises: a woman's reconstruction of her psycho-physical identity as regards gynaecological cancer is particularly difficult. Psychological assistence acquire a relevant role in improving the patient's quality of life. Personalist bioethics proposes a concept of corporeity which considers body not only in the physical aspect but also as an expression of subjectivity and totality of the person.

Bioethics

Creation, the eschaton, and bioethics.

The Christian's role in renewing the universe is to discover the true name of God's creation and to use technology as a serious enterprise of co-creation. Guided by a bioethics based on Gospel values, the Christian healer brings the eschaton closer to realization.

Bible

Bioethical problems in pharmacogenetics and ecogenetics.

Many societal and bioethical problems are raised when our knowledge of genetic variation is translated into public policy. The various dilemmas faced by imperfect knowledge are discussed. The difficulties of issuing regulations in the face of uncertain scientific knowledge are considerable. Potential variation in nutritional requirements due to biochemical variation needs to be faced by nutritional scientists and policy makers. The problems of discrimination against carriers of the currently testable genetic traits are discussed. Screening of workers susceptible to industrial injury for genetic reasons is being started. However, industry may escape its responsibilities for industrial hygiene by concentrating on susceptibility testing--often in the face of poor data. A variety of other issues such as the "false positive" test and genetic identity cards are discussed. Public policy dealing with human genetic variation must be based on accurate genetic data. At that point, careful assessment of the societal impact of the policy needs to be considered before implementation. Problems of coping with human genetic variation are of increasing importance for developed societies but remain a low priority item for developing societies that face current problems of malnutrition and infectious disease.

Ecology

Jewish theology and bioethics.

This article explores the theological foundations of both classical and contemporary Jewish ethics, with special reference to biomedical issues. Traditional views concerning God's revelation to Israel are shown to underlie the methodological orientation of classical Jewish ethics, which is both legalistic and particularistic. Contemporary Jewish ethicists, by contrast, have tended to embrace more liberal views of revelation which have mitigated both the legalism and the particularism of their approach. Apart from methodological considerations, much of the content of Jewish medical ethics has also been shaped by theological concerns. Specifically, a Jewish theology of creation provides basic norms and values which inform Jewish responses to a range of contemporary biomedical issues. Finally, it is suggested that the theological roots of this ethical tradition do not disqualify it from making a significant contribution to the wider discussion of biomedical issues in our secular, pluralistic society.

Bioethical Issues