biomedical ethics

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What is biomedical ethics?

Biomedical ethics or bioethics is concerned with ethical controversies brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Ethical questions arise in the relationships among or due to differences in perspective in areas related to sciences, philosophy, politics and law. The application of bioethics is in finding reasoned, consistent and defensible solutions to moral problems for decision making. This is also applied to solve actual or anticipated dilemmas caused due to the ethical questions with respect to the application of certain biological or medical methods for treatment of diseases or other medical conditions.

What is the purpose and scope of bioethics?

The purpose of bioethics is to identify the ethical principles in biomedical and behavioral research involving humans with a focus on retaining human dignity and sanctity of life. The scope of bioethics is very broad. There is no demarcation. The ethical evaluation can range from questions involving medicines or biology or their applications thereof, and the morality of certain medical treatments or treatment procedure or drugs. In a few cases, the type of medical devices used and the organs they are used on have also been a question of ethics. To a great extent, biomedical ethics also questions some of the tests including DNA modifications such as cloning or trans-generics and more.

What are the perspectives and methodology in bioethics?

Bioethicists come from all backgrounds and disciplines and bring with them a different perspective on the same issue. The multidisciplinary team has made analysis on the complicated issues complicated and at the same time has changed the process of analysis itself. Many a time it is observed that the basic questions or differences in bioethics are brought about due to differences in perspective. A Bioethicist typically assists health care professionals and researchers in examining moral issues involved in our understanding of life and death and resolving the resulting issues. Religious communities base their perspective on their respective faiths and have developed guidelines from them to deal with bioethical issues, the goal being not to do anything evil. Casebased approach is neutral from any such bias and is like clinical practices where general rules and case-based experiences are taken into consideration.

What are the hot issues in bioethics?

The widely debated issues in bioethics include abortion, animal rights, artificial insemination, cloning, cryonics, euthanasia, gene research and therapy, genetically modified food, medical interrogation, psychosurgery, stem cell research and surrogacy.

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