Bioethics Exam 3

Genesis 1:27

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Exodus 21:22

“If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely^[e] but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows.

Psalm 129:13

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Luke 1:44

As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Fertilization

The union of sperm and egg to form a new organism.

Zygote

The single cell formed at fertilization; the earliest stage of development.

Blastocyst

An early stage of development (a few days after fertilization) when the embryo is a hollow ball of cells.

Embryo

The developing human from about 2 to 8 weeks after fertilization.

Fetus

The developing human from about 8 weeks after fertilization until birth.

Spontaneous abortion

An abortion resulting from natural causes such as a birth defect or maternal injury

Induced abortion

The intentional termination of a pregnancy through drugs or surgery

therapeutic abortion

Abortion performed to preserve the life or health of the mother

Quickening

A pregnant woman’s experience of fetal movement inside her (at about 16-20 weeks)

Viability

The development stage at which the fetus can survive outside the uterus

Slippery slope

The idea that one action will lead to a chain of events ending in something extreme or undesirable.

Speciesism

The belief that one species (usually humans) is more important than others.

Fallacy of equivocation

A mistake in reasoning where a word is used in two different meanings in the same argument.

Categorical Imperative

A moral rule (from Kant) that says you should act only in ways that could be universal laws for everyone.

Doctrine of Double effect

The idea that an action with both good and bad effects can be morally acceptable if the bad effect is not intended.

U.S Supreme Course case- Roe v. Wade

A decision that established a woman’s right to privacy, including the right to have an abortion, with some limits.

Arguments in favor abortion

• contending that merely being biologically human is not sufficient to establish personhood.

• arguing that a fetus does not possess the properties that qualify an entity as a person.

Arguments against abortion

• appealing to the lack of a precise cut-off point between zygote and adult human.

• arguing that the fetus is a potential person.

Peter Singer

A philosopher who argues that moral value depends on traits like consciousness and the ability to suffer, not just being human.

Judith Jarvis Thomson

argues that even if the unborn is a person from the moment of conception, abortion may still be morally justified in some cases

Mary Anne Warren

asserts that five traits are central to personhood. Any being that satisfies none of these traits is certainly not a person. A fetus satisfies none and is therefore not a person

In vitro fertilization

The uniting of sperm and egg in a laboratory dish instead of inside a woman’s body

Gamete intrafallopian transfer

Ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval proceed as they do in IVF, but then the eggs and sperm (gametes) are transferred together to a fallopian tube to fertilize

Zygote intrafollopian transfer

Like IVF, this procedure depends on fertilization occurring in vitro, but an embryo (zygote) is transferred not to the uterus but to a fallopian tube

Arguments in favor of in vitro fertilization

People have a right to make reproductive choices without interference from others, including choices about using reproductive technologies.

Arguments against in vitro fertilization

• It may cause birth defects or disease.

• It undermines the value of children.

• It separates reproduction from sexual intercourse.

• It changes traditional family relationships.

Autonomy

The right of individuals to make their own choices, especially about reproduction, without interference.

Beneficence

The duty to do good and promote the well-being of others.

Non-Maleficence

The duty to do no harm.

Justice

Fairness in how benefits and burdens are distributed.

Arguments in favor of human reproductive cloning

• Appeals to reproductive liberty

• Benefits to infertile couples

Arguments against human reproductive cloning

• Cloning is unnatural

• It violates the right of the resulting clone to a unique identity or future

• It will result in the demeaning artificial manufacture of children as products

Year first baby was conceived via in vitro fertilization

1978

Baby M

A famous legal case about surrogacy in which a surrogate mother refused to give up the baby after birth, raising questions about parental rights.

Bonnie Steinbock

A bioethicist who writes about reproductive technologies and argues that they can be morally acceptable under certain conditions.

Leon Kass

A bioethicist who argues against some reproductive technologies, saying they are unnatural and can undermine human dignity.

year the structure of DNA was published

1953

year the human genome was sequenced

2003

genetic errors and the number of hereditary diseases

Genetic errors (mutations) are changes in DNA that can cause disease; thousands of hereditary diseases are caused by these mutations.

limits of genetic testing

• Results usually give probabilities, not certainty

• A negative result does not guarantee no disease

• Cannot predict severity or timing of disease

• Ability to detect diseases is greater than ability to treat them

moral issues pertaining to genetic testing

• Duty to warn family members

• Patient autonomy and confidentiality

• Genetic discrimination

• Using testing to avoid having disabled children

somatic cell nuclear transfer

A cloning technique where the nucleus of a body cell is placed into an egg cell whose nucleus has been removed.

clustered regularly inter spaced short palindromic repeats

A gene-editing technology that allows scientists to precisely change DNA

year the Genetic information non-discrimination act signed into law

2008

moral issues pertaining to gene therapy

• Risks and benefits of treatment

• Duty to prevent suffering

• Reproductive freedom

• Concerns about “positive genetics”

somatic modifications

Changes to body (non-reproductive) cells that are not inherited

germ like modifications

Changes to egg, sperm, or zygote cells that can be inherited

adult embryonic stem cells

Stem cells found in adult tissues that can develop into a limited range of cell types.

embryonic stem cells

Cells derived from embryos (e.g., blastocysts) that may be used for medical research and treatment

issues pertaining to embryonic stem cells

• Whether it is morally acceptable to destroy embryos

• Debate over the moral status of embryos