Module 1: Introduction to Bioethics

Bioethics

concerned with questions about

• basic human values such as the rights to life and health

• rightness or wrongness of certain developments in healthcare institutions, life technology, medicine, and the health professions

• society’s responsibility for the life and health of its members

Health ethics

• at the core of health care ethics are our sense of right and wrong and our beliefs about right we possess and duties we owe others

Professional ethics

each practitioner, upon entering a profession is invested with the responsibility to adhere to the standards of ethical practice and conduct set by the profession

Types of Ethics

1. general ethics

2. applied/special ethics

General Ethics

• it teaches that man must do good and avoid evil

• it explains the norms with which the moral significance of human act is determined

Applied/special ethics

• it demonstrates what is good or evil, and therefore what is to be done or avoided

• it is the application of the principles of general ethics into the problems and issues confronting a person on account of his circumstances in life

importance of bioethics to healthcare professionals

1. protection of life of patients

2. ensure quality of service delivery

3. protection from legal sanctions

purpose of bioethics

• guides professionals in the conduct of their respective duties

• prescribe standard of care to ensure client protection and satisfaction

human act

• being the object of study of ethics, are voluntary acts that proceed from free will.

• depend on human judgment and choice and hence entail a moral responsibility

• the doing or the absence of doing builds the kind of life the person lives

• actions done consciously and freely by the agent/ or by man

constituent elements of human acts

1. knowledge of the act

2. freedom

3. voluntariness

natural acts of man

• actions beyond one’s consciousness; not dependent on the intellect & will

• acts that are performed by men without being master of them through his intellect and will

essential qualities of acts of man

1. done with knowledge

2. without consent

3. involuntary

Ethics

• is a field of philosophy that specifically studies human acts in the light of morality and well-defined standars of right and wrong.

• comes from the Greek word “ethos” or “ethous” meaning use, custom, way of behaving, character

• Latin term “mos” or “moris”

• they are natural to humans which confers and develops goodness in them

Moral distress

• is a negative experience that occur when that person knows the right way of action but organizational limits would make the execution impossible for him

• experienced mental imbalance and negative emotion when the individual makes an ethical decision but is not able to act in line with their decision

eternal law

refers to the plan of divine wisdom leading all creation towards its goal

natural moral law

is the participation in the eternal law by the rational creature

civil law

• designed to protect the freedom of the people. the freedom to lead a good life away from harm and evil

• designed out of reason and the natural law is the rule of reason, are anchored on natural law.

cultural norms

• are a product of time and space-related concern. norms have to consider the living conditions and needs of a particular culture in the context of time and space it is happening

code of ethics

are formal statements of the group’s ideals & values that

• is shared by members of the group

• reflects their moral judgment overtime

• serves as a standard for their professional actions

Model of Moral Behaviour (James Rest)

• identified four elements of ethical actions which are psychological processes that occur before moral behavior takes place

4 elements

1. moral sensitivity (recognition)

2. moral judgment or reasoning

3. moral motivation

4. moral character

nursing ethics

• is the applied discipline that studies the ethical dimensions and issues in nursing practice

• it is a subset of healthcare ethics

Nursing code of ethics

• BON resolution 220 series 2004

• provides guidance for carrying out nursing responsibilities consistent with the ethical obligations of the profession

1. provides guideline for safe and compassionate care

2. guarantees the public that nurse adheres to standards of professional practice

4 fundamental responsibilities of international council of nurses code of ethics

1. promote health

2. prevent illness

3. restore health

4. alleviate suffering

critical concern of bioethics

1. human experimentation

2. discovery of genetics

3. organ transplants

4. the beginning of life and human procreation

5. end of life issues

Intellect

the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, specially with regard to abstract or academic matters

will

the process of power of wishing, choosing, desiring, or intending

freedom

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint

conscience

an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one’s behavior

morality

standards of right and wrong of the action

beliefs

are interpretations or conclusions that people accept as true

values

are enduring beliefs or attitudes about the worth of an individual, object, idea, or action

Law

the system of rules which a particular country or community recognized as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties

Natural Law

system of right or justice held to be common to all humans derived from nature rather than from the rules of society