Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Throughout this topic, we consider bioethics questions relevant to the practice of engineering. Few, if
any, of these will be answered to the complete satisfaction of every engineer. However, the very process
of inquiry may help to give context and structure to some otherwise amorphous issues. So, let us begin
with an essential query:
Bioethics
Question:
When
is
an
action
morally
permissible
and
what
kinds
of
behavior
are
morally
obligatory?
Let us begin on a balmy Saturday morning in the North Carolina Piedmont, where a hundred or so
new graduate students were gathered in the auditorium of Duke University's Chemistry Building. It
was orientation week in late August, when Duke requires that every Ph.D.-seeking graduate student
participate in a full day of ethics training.
The Responsible Conduct of Research training program developed by the Graduate School had had
some inauspicious beginnings. Some years earlier, Duke, like other prominent research universities,
risked losing funding from the National Institutes of Health because their research programs could not
demonstrate that their researchers were receiving adequate training in ethics. So, as is often the case,
Duke did not simply respond to the criticism and threat by instituting a
pro
forma
program to keep
the auditors happy, but decided to use this as a “teachable moment” and galvanizing event. Among the
creative approaches to be adopted was to engage the students as soon as they arrive in Durham. Part of
this commitment was to invite provocative speakers to evoke responses and to stir the imagination of
the students. It was hoped that this first gathering would begin each student's self-directive, proactive,
lifelong ethos of responsible research. On that Saturday, the students were asked to participate in two
thought experiments.
In this vein, rather than to try the familiar ethical analytical approach of tediously (and often boringly)
delineating, point by point, each possible bioethical aspect of engineering, we apply a tool used by
philosophers to approach bioethics intuitively, using our imagination.
THOUGHT
EXPERIMENTS
After the students had conducted a couple of projects and were given some advice on how to avoid
ethical dilemmas, Duke University philosophy professor, Alex Rosenberg,
2
presented the following
thought experiments:
3
Thought
Experiment
1
You are riding in a trolley car in San Francisco. You are the only passenger. Being the inquisitive type that
you are, you watch the trolley driver's methods of controlling speed, changing tracks, and other aspects of
handling the machinery. You ascend a hill, come to the top, and begin your descent. To your surprise and
horror, during the downhill acceleration, the trolley driver jumps from the car, leaving you alone.
You move to the driver's seat and quickly find out why the driver jettisoned. The brakes have completely
failed. The driver must have had a strong understanding of the laws of motions, since he jumped just before
the car accelerated to the velocity at which anyone jumping from the car would suffer mortal injuries. In
other words, you cannot leave the car. The horn and warning devices have also failed and do not operate.
The only remaining control available to you is the lever that changes tracks.
