BIOL134

• Deontology

  Ethics based on duty; focuses on the intrinsic nature of actions
• Deontology

  • Immanuel Kant: Humans should be treated as ends in themselves, not as means to an end
  • Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated
• Consequentialism/Utilitarianism

  Ethics based on outcomes; rightness or wrongness depends on the results
• Consequentialism/Utilitarianism

  • Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill: The ethically right choice is the one that produces the most happiness for the most people
• Virtue Ethics

  Focuses on the character of the person performing the action
• Virtue Ethics

  • Emphasizes living a virtuous life and achieving good character traits
• Deontological view on COVID vaccination

  Respect individual autonomy in vaccination decisions
• Utilitarian view on COVID vaccination

  Vaccination benefits public health
• Virtue Ethics view on COVID vaccination

  Emphasizes the moral character of the vaccinator
• Ethical considerations guide regulations and practices in biomedical research and treatment
• Crises stimulate biomedical innovation (e.g., conflicts, colonialism, natural disasters, epidemics)
• Historical events like the French Revolution and various wars have led to advancements in medical practices
• Tuskegee Syphilis Study

  Study on the natural progression of untreated syphilis in African American men, participants were misled and not provided with treatment even when it became available
• Nazi Experimentation During WWII

  Conducted unethical experiments on prisoners without consent, led to international ethical guidelines like the Nuremberg Code
• Nuremberg Code

  Emphasizes informed consent in human research
• Declaration of Helsinki


  Sets ethical guidelines for research
• Principles of Biomedical Ethics

  • Non-maleficence: Do no harm
  • Beneficence: Act in the best interest of the patient
  • Autonomy: Respect for the patient's right to make decisions
  • Justice: Fair distribution of benefits and risks
• Non-Maleficence: Avoid causing harm to patients
• Beneficence: Promote the well-being of patients
• Autonomy: Ensure informed consent and respect patient decisions
• Justice: Ensure fair treatment and equitable access to medical resources
• Autonomy vs. Beneficence

  Balancing patient autonomy with medical advice, e.g., when patients refuse life-saving treatments
• Justice in Resource Allocation

  Addressing disparities in access to treatments like IVF
• Human Exceptionalism


  Traits unique to humans (e.g., language, abstract thinking)
• Personhood

  The debate over whether infants or those with advanced dementia have similar moral status as animals
• Speciesism


  The idea that prioritizing human species over others is a form of discrimination (Peter Singer)
• Deontology (Kantian Ethics)

  Moral duty not to use humans as means to an end, emphasis on autonomy and rationality, animals lacking self-consciousness are seen as means to human ends
• Utilitarianism (Consequentialism)


  Focus on the outcomes of actions for the greater good, moral consideration for the wellbeing of all individuals, human and non-human, Jeremy Bentham: The ability to suffer is key, not the ability to reason
• Ancient Greece (340 BC): Early recorded animal experiments
• Galen (Roman doctor): Dissected pigs and goats
• 12th Century: Avenzoar tested surgical techniques on animals
• 1880s: Louis Pasteur's germ theory tested on sheep
• 1990s: Cloning of Dolly the sheep
• Vivisection

  Surgery and other invasive research on live animals
• Anti-vivisection

  Movement against animal experimentation
• Arguments for animal experimentation

  • Justified if suffering is minimized and human benefits cannot be obtained otherwise
• Arguments against animal experimentation

  • Causes animal suffering
  • Benefits to humans are not always proven and can often be achieved by other means
• Cruelty to Animals Act 1876

  Experiments must be necessary to save or prolong human life
• Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986

  Introduced cost-benefit analysis
• 3 Rs Principle

  • Replacement
  • Reduction
  • Refinement