Introduction to BioEthics

• Ethics came from the word "ethos" in Greek and "mos" or "mores" in Latin

  -Greek word “ethos” means Characteristic way of acting.

  -Latin equivalent is "mos", "mores” meaning tradition or custom
• Ethos


  Refers to those characteristics belonging to man as a rational being, being endowed with intellect and free-will
• THE ETHOS OF MAN AS MAN

  1. He feels within himself an obligation to do what is good and to avoid what is evil.
  2. He is able to distinguish between good and evil, right or wrong, moral or immoral.
  3. He feels himself for his actions, expecting reward or punishments for them
• Ethics is defined as the science of the morality of human acts, and because actions reflect the motives of the doer
• Human Acts are those actions performed by man, knowingly and freely, also known as deliberate, intentional actions, or voluntary actions
• Human acts are differentiated from the so-called "acts of man" which are instinctive and involuntary
• Constitutes of the Norm of Morality

  1. The Eternal Law – Divine Reason (from God)
  2. The Conscience – Human Reason
• Understanding Morality

  • is based on natural laws
  • Immorality
  • Moral Turpitude - contrary to good morals
  • Immoral Conduct - willful and flagrant actions
• Ethics is significant in BSMLS to tame the exercise of the profession and set limits to the parameters of the paramedical profession
• We don’t want to be:

  • Anarchic (lawless, chaotic, disordered)
  • Riotous (violent)
  • Lawbreaking
  • Defiant or disobedient (insolent)
  • Aggressive (hostile, antagonistic)
• The Basis of Medical Technology Ethics is the 1968 Code of Ethics of Medical Technologist or the PAMET
• Revised in 1992, Code of Ethics of Medical Technologist under the presidency of Mrs. Marilyn Atienza
• Revised Medical Technology Code of Ethics of March 7, 1997 under the presidency of Norma Nuñez Chang
• Medical Technology Ethics is a branch of moral science that deals with the duties of a medical technologist owed to patients and also must apply:

  • Normative Ethics
  • Personal Ethics
  • Social Ethics
  • Professional Ethics
• Health derived from an Anglo-Saxon word which are derived not only "healing" but also "holiness and wholeness"
• Health can be considered dynamically as functional whole, in which all necessary functions are present and acting cooperatively and harmoniously
• Health is the state of being in which an individual does the best with the capacities he has and acts in ways that maximizes capacities
• Dean Zenaida Capistrano–Cajucom was a past President of the PASMETH who presented the analysis based on Ethical Principles and Theories
• Health in medicine today is commonly defined in terms of standard physiological parameters
• Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
• Disease and infirmity are not the exact contrary to health
• For an organism/person to fall short of optimal functioning without actually being diseased or infirm is possible
• an organism/person can be healthy in a narrow sense without actually being used to its full capacity
• Ontological Disease


  regards diseases as separate entities

  • supports the theory that the organism constantly fights to throw off such diseases as alien invaders which disturb its homeostasis
• Physiological Disease


  views disease as a breakdown of the internal harmony of the organic system (due to hyperfunctioning or hypofunctioning of an organ)
• In physiological disease, bacteria are not primary cause of the disease but due to the imbalance of the organic system
• From the physiological point of view death is always the result of disease; therefore, death cannot be said to be natural
• False


  (T or F) The organism is homeostatic, they don't have limits to its power of self-maintenance
• homeostatic system


  one that maintains itself perpetually when not disturbed
• In ontological disease, when the environment is altered beyond a certain normal range, the organism is unable to survive
• Bioethics


  branch of Ethics which deals directly with the problems of life and dying, of health and of healing
• Bioethics


  a branch of ethics that attempts to rationalize the application and use of the many advances in medicine and in paramedical sciences
• Professional Ethics


  division of Ethics that relates to professional behavior
• Code of Ethics guides the actuation of a professional where the law is silent or inadequate
• A Code of Ethics implies that, before anything else, a professional is a person who has the obligation to listen to the "dictates of reason".
• (T/F) Ethics is an indispensable knowledge - True
• Jacques Leclercq, “forgetting that man’s greatness, perfection and happiness, his whole meaning in fact, consist in transcending the commonly accepted human good” - ethics is the only necessary knowledge
• Every healthcare provider is a moral agent who must judge the goodness or evil of his goal and actions. He cannot depend on scientific knowledge that can judge only the effectiveness of the means to achieve the desired goal
• Health care professionals have the knowledge and skill to make technical decisions, but every health care decision involves human needs and human values and therefore is also an ethical decision
• Nothing is more human, more personal than health. Concern about health goes far beyond physical well-being