Описание:Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on human ethics, but also increasingly includes animal ethics and environmental ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, medicine, and technologies. The development of bioethics was precipitated by recent unprecedented progress in biomedicine that has made possible what formerly was considered unconceivable. Currently, advances in biomedicine are giving rise to new technologies that enable us to successfully cope with most severe health problems, to significantly extend the human lifespan, and to survive under extreme conditions.
Nonetheless, the recent achievements of human civilization cause new concerns because new technologies are not always beneficial to them. People have to make difficult choices since using the technologies also implies overcoming their negative consequences. The perpetual issue of distinguishing the good from the evil is becoming still more important than ever.
Bioethics seems to be a new area of research that started developing in the mid-20th century AD. However, the development of bioethics was actually preceded by important progress in the field of medical ethics, which analyzes the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research. Medical ethics is based on a set of values that professionals can refer to in the case of any confusion or conflict. These values include
• respect for autonomy = respecting each patient’s rights
• non-maleficence = doing no harm to patients
• beneficence = doing good to patients, and
• justice = treating all patients equally and giving them all sufficient help and attention.
These concepts will be discussed in more detail in the following lectures