[Problems in bioethics. How to sensitize the young generation to bioethical problems--a task of actively approaching on various levels of education].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Adolescent↗
SEARCH · PubMed Health
Results for “Bioethics”
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
[Bioethics in Romania. Science is a challenge, bioethics is a response].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Bioethics↗
Teaching bioethics to medical students: the Newcastle experience.
Over the past two decades in the USA, bioethics has become an accepted component of medical education, whereas in Australia, 10 years or even less would encompass the history of most existing programmes. Given the legendary conservatism of medical schools in Australia and the intractability of the medical curriculum, this is still a remarkable achievement. But does the teaching of bioethics change the thinking and/or decision-making behaviour of medical students or practitioners exposed to such courses? Those involved know only too well how difficult such courses are to design and evaluate since the connection between ethics education and practice is not known and may never be demonstrated to the satisfaction of critics. Critics not only seek answers to the questions of whether the teaching of bioethics makes a difference, which is a fair question, but they also seek answers to the question of whether bioethics should be taught in medical schools. Can bioethics be taught? Whose bioethics is being taught? What does the trained bioethicist contribute? Some of these questions arise from misunderstanding and some reflect the still too dominant view in medical schools which divides disciplines into those which provide 'practical skills', and those which contribute only theoretical and therefore peripheral knowledge. The authors will address these questions in the light of their experience at Newcastle, Australia, where the Faculty of Medicine has been teaching bioethics for over a decade.
Attitude of Health Personnel↗
A nursing bioethics program.
In 1985 the Seattle Veterans' Administration Medical Center nursing service implemented a nursing program for bioethics with three goals: (1) to expand the nurse's knowledge of bioethical principles, (2) to develop the nurse's ability and confidence in analyzing bioethical dilemmas, and (3) to increase bioethical application at the bedside. Two psychosocial clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) led this highly successful nursing program that prepared nurses to more actively and responsibly participate in bioethical decision making within the medical center. The program offers an annual workshop for new members, holds a monthly discussion group, conducts a yearly enrichment program, and completes an annual evaluation report. This article describes nursing service bioethics program from planning through evaluation and the role of the CNS as program coordinator, facilitator, and educator in the expanding field of bioethics.
Education, Nursing, Continuing↗
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↗
Clinical judgment and bioethics: the decision making link.
The literature on bioethics is diverse and confusing in its treatment of appropriate components for decision making. As a result, the literature on teaching bioethics is also confusing, even contradictory, in presenting an 'appropriate' framework within which learners may come to understand the nature and process of bioethics. The article sets out five decision components which are seen as common to all decision making. These components are then shown to have a significant influence both on bioethics decision making and on bioethics teaching. They are also shown to play a role in breaking down the separatism evidenced in contemporary bioethics literature aimed at individual professions.
Beneficence↗
Getting down to cases: the revival of casuistry in bioethics.
This article examines the emergence of casuistical case analysis as a methodological alternative to more theory-driven approaches in bioethics research and education. Focusing on The Abuse of Casuistry by A. Jonsen and S. Toulmin, the article articulates the most characteristic features of this modern-day casuistry (e.g., the priority allotted to case interpretation and analogical reasoning over abstract theory, the resemblance of casuistry to common law traditions, the 'open texture' of its principles, etc.) and discusses some problems with casuistry as an 'anti-theoretical' method. It is argued that casuistry so defined is 'theory modest' rather than 'theory free' and that ethical theory can still play a significant role in casuistical analysis; that casuistical analyses will encounter conflicting 'deep' interpretations of our social practices and institutions, and are therefore unlikely sources of increased social consensus on controversial bioethical questions; that its conventionalism raises questions about casuistry's ability to criticize norms embedded in the societal consensus; and that casuistry's emphasis upon analogical reasoning may tend to reinforce the individualistic nature of much bioethical writing. It is concluded that, not-withstanding these problems, casuistry represents a promising alternative to the regnant model of 'applied ethics' (i.e., to the ritualistic invocation of the so-called 'principles of bioethics'). The pedagogical implications of casuistry are addressed throughout the paper and include the following recommendations: (1) use real cases, (2) make them long, richly detailed and comprehensive, (3) present complex sequences of cases, (4) stress the problem of 'moral diagnosis', and (5) be ever mindful of the limits of casuistical analysis.
Bioethical Issues↗
What has bioethics to offer health policy?
The field of bioethics has quickly become a subject of intense public fascination; and, following on an earlier period of resistance and skepticism, bioethics has been welcomed by clinicians as well. Bioethics, however, is largely a practical activity rather than a scholarly one, and its pretensions as an academic discipline within health policy and health services research must be greeted cautiously. Continuing problems in moral theory suggest that the most secure contributions that bioethics can make to health policy research are analysis and criticism rather than positive moral claims.
Advisory Committees↗
Present status and prospects of bioethics in Argentina.
Most developments supporting the study of bioethics in Argentina are of relatively recent vintage. This article is dedicated to describing those developments--including creation of Argentina's Institute of Medical Humanities, formation of a bioethics working group at the National University of Mar del Plata, initiation of a two-year graduate bioethics course at the same university, and the holding of an international symposium and workshop on bioethics at Mar del Plata in 1988. Particular attention is devoted to the graduate course, the detailed design of which is outlined in Annex 1.
Argentina↗
Overview of bioethics in Mexico.
In Mexico, as in many other countries, there are numerous situations involving bioethics that are not necessarily covered by officially sanctioned policies or guidelines. In such cases, it is reasonable to describe commonly accepted rules, opinions, and practices in a general way so as to illustrate how bioethical questions are being managed. This article describes certain goals and practices relating to education in bioethics in Mexico. It then outlines Mexican laws and procedures governing research on human subjects, cites certain official rules and activities relating to regulation of human reproduction, quotes literature dealing with intervention in human procreation, discusses artificial prolongation of life, describes laws and practices governing organ transplants, considers ethical issues relating to such transplants, reviews the AIDS situation, and describes how the need for confidentiality is dealt with in managing AIDS cases and related data. In this manner it indicates how bioethical questions in these various areas are being handled and points out certain priority areas needing work.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
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↗
Current bioethics trends in Canada.
Canadian bioethicists have long enjoyed access to bioethics programs in the United States and have collaborated with U.S. organizations working in this field. Nevertheless, special features of Canada's multicultural society and public health services are increasingly seen as raising distinctive issues requiring special attention. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of current Canadian bioethics trends in various areas--including those of training, research on human subjects, human reproduction, termination of life, biotechnology, organ transplants, and AIDS. Comparison of this work with other articles in this issue will show that while some of the trends involved have paralleled similar ones in the United States, some trends (such as that regarding confidentiality and the reporting of HIV infection) have been quite different.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
Dynamics of the bioethics dialogue in a Spain in transition.
Serious work on bioethics at private Spanish institutions began in 1975, when the Spanish Government was in transition toward democracy. Since then the country has developed significant centers of bioethics study and a wide-ranging community of experts in this field. Reasons relating partly to Spain's recent history and partly to the nature of its health system have kept the discipline from attracting the support and collaboration of much of the nation's medical fraternity. This could change, however, in response to a changing legal picture, creation of hospital ethics committees, and a growing need for stronger ties between bioethicists and the medical community at large.
Bioethical Issues↗
American moralism and the origin of bioethics in the United States.
The theology of John Calvin has deeply affected the American mentality through two streams of thought, Puritanism and Jansenism. These traditions formulate moral problems in terms of absolute, clear principles and avoid casuistic analysis of moral problems. This approach is designated American moralism. This article suggests that the bioethics movement in the United States was stimulated by the moralistic mentality but that the work of the bioethics has departed from this viewpoint.
Advisory Committees↗
The merger of bioethics and epidemiology.
The merger of bioethics and epidemiology reflects the established idea that values are important for epidemiologic practice. It also reflects the more recent realization that standards of conduct are a timely addition to the profession. The thesis of this paper goes somewhat further and asserts that this merger represents an essential cornerstone in the foundation of a philosophy of epidemiology. Historical reflection reveals existing ontological and epistemological components to this same foundation. The union of bioethics and epidemiology suggests an important philosophical problem: selecting a method for unifying ethical and scientific reasoning. Solutions are proposed including: dialectic and critical rationalism.
Bioethics↗
Introduction: medical bioethics.
The key concepts of modern medical bioethics can be traced back to ideas developed in the course of the history of medicine and to political concepts harkening back as far as Plato. This work reviews these historical developments and demonstrates their relevance to current bioethics.
Beneficence↗
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↗
[Bioethical issues and principles in cancer treatment].
Bioethics was established as a new area of interdisciplinary studies focusing on human conduct in the field of the life sciences and health care in the light of moral values and principles in the 1960's and the beginning of the 1970's. Physicians abiding by classical medical ethics based upon the Oath of Hippocrates became subject to criticism because they behaved paternalistically in relation to their patients and provided medical treatment dogmatically without adequate explanation concerning conditions and diagnoses of patients' diseases, what kinds of treatments they were to receive and the possible benefits and risks thereof, along with their prognoses. During the patients' rights' movement, law suits against paternalistic physicians increased in number and the courts tried to establish ethical and legal principles for judgments in law suits using the Ethical Code of Neurenberg (1947) as an excellent model. The legal principles established as "informed consent" include obligations of physicians to provide their patients with adequate explanation and truth-telling, and the rights of patients to autonomy, choice, self-determination, and to give consent to physicians. Besides these rights, patients also have the right to put their veto on their own rights. In such cases, truth-telling by physicians, who believe in truth-telling, such as the disclosure of the diagnosis of cancer to these patients, can legally result in infringement of the patient's rights. It is important for physicians to respect the wishes and opinions of patients based on their own values and not to insist on personal dogmatic opinions. The disclosure of cancer diagnosis to terminal patients is certainly one of the most difficult procedures in medical practice and requires profound medical experience and bioethical insight.
Bioethics↗