Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
skeptic? Human kind can either resign itself to failure and
deem the problems it will come to face unsolvable, or it
can press forward, attempting to solve the problems it
faces and overcome tomorrow's challenges. While the
question is subjective, it becomes clear that in order to
have progress, most engineers choose creativity and action.
Notes and commentary
1
National Academy of Engineering,
The
Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering
in the New Century
(Washington, DC:
National Academy Press, 2004), 49.
2
V.R. Potter II,''What Does Bioethics
Mean?''
The Ag Bioethics Forum
8, no.1
(1996): 2 - 3.
3
A.S. Daar, H. Thorsteinsd´ttir, D.K.
Martin, A.C. Smith, S. Nast, and P.A.
Singer, ''Top Ten Biotechnologies for
Improving Health in Developing
Countries,''
Nature Genetics
32(2002):
229 - 32.
4
Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology
(New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 1997).
scsunpat.shtml
(accessed 17 September
2006).
and Moral Challenges)
(Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons, 2006).
15
26
K.D. Warner, ''Are Life Patents
Ethical? Conflict between Catholic
Social Teaching and Agricultural
Biotechnology's Patent Regime,''
Journal
of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics
14, no. 3 (2002): 301-19.
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).
16
D. Rees and S. Rose,
The New Brain
Sciences: Perils and Prospects
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press, 2004).
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.
17
President's Council on Bioethics, Staff
Background Paper: Organ
Transplantation: Ethical Dilemmas
and Policy Choices (Washington, DC,
2003).
29
M.L. King Jr.,
Strength to Love
,
Fortress Edition (May 1981)
(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress
Publishers, 1963).
5
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
19
30
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
Guidelines for the Protection of Human
Subjects of Research
, 18 April 1979.
Agent Orange website:
http://www.
lewispublishing.com/orange.htm
(accessed 22 April 2005).
7
The President's Council on Bioethics,
''Working Paper 1, Session 4: Human
Cloning 1: Human Procreation and
Biotechnology,'' (17 January 2002).
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).
8
L.R. Kass, The President's Council on
Bioethics, Transmittal Memo to ''Human
Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical
Inquiry,'' (Washington, DC: 2002).
20
R.V. Orzeck shared this case that will
appear in his topic,
So Now You'll Know
,
to be published in 2007.
9
L.R. Kass, 2005, Letter of Transmittal to
President George W. Bush,
Alternative
Sources of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
,
a White Paper of the President's Council
on Bioethics (Washington, DC, 10 May
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!
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.
10
The President's Council on Bioethics,
Executive Summary, ''Human Cloning
and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry,''
(Washington, DC: 2002), xxvii.
11
P. Singer,
Rethinking Life and Death: The
Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics
(New
York, NY: St. Martin's Griffin, 1994).
22
This discussion draws upon the ideas
of Diana Chang, who conducted
undergraduate research in an
independent study course that
I facilitated at Duke.
12
M. Schooyans,
Bioethics and Population:
The Choice of Life
(St Louis, MO:
Central Bureau, Community Center for
Vital Aging, 1996).
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).
33
International Programme on Chemical
Safety, United Nations Environmental
Programme, ''Cadmium.'' Environmental
Health Criteria (EHC134), Geneva,
Switzerland, 1992.
13
P. De Coppi, G. Bartsch Jr., M.M.
Siddiqui, T. Xu, C.C. Santos, L. Perin,
G. Mostoslavsky, A.C. Serre, E.Y.
Synder, J.J. Yoo, M.E. Furth, S. Soker,
and A. Atala ''Isolation of Amniotic
Stem Cell Lines with Potential for
Therapy''
Nature Biotechnology
25(1)
(2007): 100-6.
24
Ibid.
34
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry, US Department of Health and
Human Services ''Toxicological Profile
for Cadmium,'' Washington, DC, 1999.
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
14
Church of Scotland, 2006, Society,
Religion and Technology Project,
Patenting Life: An Introduction to the
Issues,
http://www.srtp.org.uk/
35
T. Colburn, Speech at
the State of the
World Forum
(San Francisco, CA: 1996).
