Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
17
President's Council on Bioethics, Staff Background Paper: Organ Transplantation: Ethical Dilemmas
and Policy Choices (Washington, DC, 2003).
18
Ibid.
19
US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, National Commission for the Protection of Human
Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research,
The
Belmont
Report:
Ethical
Principles
and
Guide-
lines
for
the
Protection
of
Human
Subjects
of
Research
, 18 April 1979.
20
R.V. Orzeck shared this case that will appear in his topic,
So
Now
You'll
Know
, to be published in
2007.
21
One of the common themes of this topic, along with a systematic approach and the need for
professional trust, is that of empathy. Schweitzer's reverence for life has been characterized as a
“bioempathetic” viewpoint. See: A. Sweitzer,
Out
of
My
Life
and
Thought
(translated by A.B. Lemke)
(Henry Holt & Co., New York, NY, 1990), 157.
22
This discussion draws upon the ideas of Diana Chang, who conducted undergraduate research in an
independent study course that I facilitated at Duke.
23
F.B. Orlans, T.L. Beauchamp, R. Dresser, D.B. Morton, and J.P. Gluck,
The
Human
Use
of
Animals:
Case
Studies
in
Ethical
Choice
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).
24
Ibid.
25
T.F. Budinger and M.D. Budinger refer to this approach as the “four As:” (1) acquire facts; (2)
alternatives; (3) assessment; and (4) action (T.F. Budinger and M.D. Budinger,
Ethics
of
Emerging
Technologies:
Scientific
Facts
and
Moral
Challenges
) (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006).
26
This discussion draws upon the ideas of Zach Abrams, who conducted undergraduate research on
GMOs in my Ethis in professions course of Duke.
27
G. Tulloch,
Euthanasia:
Choice
and
Death
(Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2005).
28
S. Ewen and A. Pusztai, “Effect of Diets Containing Genetically Modified Potatoes Expressing
Galanthus
nivalis
Lectin on Rat Small Intestine,”
The
Lancet
, 354 (1999), 9187.
29
M.L. King Jr.,
Strength
to
Love
, Fortress Edition (May 1981) (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress
Publishers, 1963).
30
Agent Orange website:
http://www.lewispublishing.com/orange.htm
(accessed 22 April 2005).
31
A principal source for the Minamata case is the Trade & Environment Database, developed by James
R. Lee, American University, The School of International Service,
http://www.american.edu/TED/
(accessed 19 April 2005).
32
This is an all too common professional ethics problem, i.e., lack of full disclosure. It is often, in
retrospect, a very costly decision to withhold information about a product, even if the consequences
of releasing the information would adversely affect the “bottom line.” Ultimately, as has been seen in
numerous ethical case studies, the costs of not disclosing are severe, such as bankruptcy and massive
class action lawsuits, let alone the fact that a company's decision may have led to the death and
disease of the very people they claim to be serving, their customers and workers!
33
International Programme on Chemical Safety, United Nations Environmental Programme,
“Cadmium.” Environmental Health Criteria (EHC134), Geneva, Switzerland, 1992.
34
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, US Department of Health and Human Services
“Toxicological Profile for Cadmium,” Washington, DC, 1999.
35
T. Colburn, Speech at
the
State
of
the
World
Forum
(San Francisco, CA: 1996).
36
Webster's
Ninth
New
Collegiate
Dictionary
(Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1990).
