Module 1 – Biomedical Ethics: Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering the essential terms, people, and concepts introduced in the Module 1 lecture on Biomedical Ethics.

Biomedical Ethics

The field that studies moral questions and dilemmas arising from the practice and science of medicine.

Truth-telling (Medical)

The ethical duty of healthcare professionals to provide honest, accurate information to patients.

Clear Communication

Ensuring medical information is conveyed in a way patients can understand, enabling informed decisions.

Resource Allocation

The ethical distribution of limited medical staff, equipment, and funds within a healthcare setting.

Terminal Patient Care

Medical and ethical issues surrounding treatment of patients near the end of life.

Futile Treatment

Interventions that offer no reasonable hope of benefit to a dying patient.

Medical Research Ethics

Standards governing the design and conduct of studies involving human subjects or data.

Self-care (Medical Professionals)

Ethical obligation of clinicians to maintain their own health to care effectively for others.

Organ Transplantation Ethics

Moral principles guiding the allocation and procurement of organs for transplant.

Highest Good for the Patient

Acting to promote the overall well-being and benefit of a patient (beneficence).

Reproductive Issues in Healthcare

Ethical concerns involving contraception, fertility, pregnancy, and related care.

Hospital Mission Statement

A code declaring a hospital’s guiding ethical purposes and values.

Medicine and the Public Good

The idea that medical practice serves not only individuals but society as a whole.

Ethical Accountability

Professional responsibility of clinicians to justify their actions and decisions.

Medicine

The science-based practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease.

Science

Systematic pursuit of knowledge based on observation, experimentation, and facts.

Truth (Scientific)

Conclusions confirmed by repeated, empirical evidence.

Patient Honesty

A patient’s duty to disclose accurate information for effective care.

Empirical Evidence

Data obtained through observation or experiment, forming the basis of scientific truth.

Myth

Pre-scientific narrative attempting to explain the world’s origins and workings.

Philosophy

The discipline that seeks fundamental understanding of reality, knowledge, and values—often beginning in wonder.

Presocratics

Early Greek thinkers before Socrates who initiated rational inquiry into nature.

Thales

6th-century BC philosopher who proposed water as the origin of all things—an early scientific hypothesis.

Immanuel Kant

Philosopher awed by the “starry heavens above” and “moral law within,” author of The Critique of Pure Reason.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Writer who said the world is “full of wonderful things,” expressing child-like wonder.

Tuskegee Study

Unethical U.S. syphilis research highlighting the need for protections in human studies.

Frankenstein

Novel often cited in bioethics as a cautionary tale about scientific overreach.

Health

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being enabling all other human activities.

Worldview

An overall framework of beliefs through which a person interprets reality.

Sacred (regarding Truth)

Held in inviolable, highest esteem; truth is treated as precious and non-negotiable.

Human Dignity

Intrinsic worth of every person, forming a foundational principle of biomedical ethics.

Pillars of Biomedical Ethics

Core principles such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice that guide ethical decisions.