Bioethics examines ethical questions arising from biology, medicine, and technology. This lesson introduces the field and surveys legal, political, and consequentialist perspectives on abortion.
The term bioethics, meaning “life ethics,” was coined in 1970 by biochemist Van Rensselaer Potter. Bioethics considers moral questions created or intensified by developments in medicine, biology, and technology. Its topics include patient autonomy, access to health resources, human experimentation, privacy, and decisions about life and death.
All flashcards
Clinical equipoise
A state in which evidence does not establish that one trial treatment is better than another for the participants in question.
Physician-assisted suicide (PAS)
A practice in which a physician provides the means or information, but the patient performs the final act.
Mary Anne Warren’s five traits associated with personhood
Consciousness, reasoning, self-awareness, self-motivated activity, and communication with open-ended content.
Germ-line intervention
A genetic change that can be inherited by future generations.
DNR order
An advance instruction not to restart the heart if it stops.
Quiz questions
What does Judith Jarvis Thomson’s violinist analogy argue about a right to life?Answer: It does not automatically include a right to use another person’s body.
What is a central role of an institutional review board (IRB) in human-subjects research?Answer: Reviewing research plans and identifying risks and participant protections.
What does James Rachels argue about active and passive euthanasia?Answer: Active euthanasia can sometimes be preferable if passive withdrawal prolongs suffering.
In utilitarian reasoning, what is an opportunity cost?Answer: What is given up when one option is chosen over alternatives.
What does double-blinding in a clinical trial mean?Answer: Participants and researchers are kept unaware of treatment assignments.