BIOETHICS

BY: JOAHNAH C. BURTON, RN, JD

INTRODUCTION:

ETHICS:
 refer to the moral character of an individual.
 Greeks believed that it includes an emphasis on an individual’s
character as well as national character of a citizen as a component of
a greater community
 Philosophical and practical science that deals with the study of the
morality of human conduct.
 Science of human acts with reference to right or wrong
 Relevant standard and expectations
 A guiding principles which help the individual or group to decide what
is good or bad.
IMPORTANCE OF MORALS
ETHICS IN OUR LIFE

 What guide us to tell the truth,  Quality of human acts where

keep our promises or help the acts could be either be
someone in need good or right, evil or wrong
 Help us to make decisions and  It indicates and determines
create positive impacts whether the kind of human act
that is performed is good or
bad
 Principles of habit with respect
to right or wrong conduct
 It defines how things should
work according to an
individual’s ideas and
principles
 INTEGRIT
PRINCIPLE Y
S VALUE

CHOICE CONSCIENCE
ETHICS

RESPONSIB
MORAL ILITIES

RIGHT
CONTINUATION…

VALUES HEALTH ETHICS

  Science that deals with the study of the
Provide direction in the
morality of human conduct concerning health
determination of right versus and health care
wrong or good versus bad.  Employed to regulate human conduct in the
practice of health care so that good may be
 What an individual believes to done and evil may be avoided thereby
be worth and importance or ensuring the purpose of health care to
alleviate suffering, prevention of sickness and
to be valuable promotion of health
 HEALTH CARE
Principles and ideas that helps  Pertains to medical services, nursing care and
them in making judgment of all types of health services given by health
what is more important care practitioners
 Prevention, treatment & management of illness
 What is true to you is not true and the preservation of mental and physical
to others. well being through the services offered by the
medical and allied professions.
BIOETHICS
• Study of the ethical and moral implications/issues of new
biological discoveries and biomedical advances as fields of
genetic engineering and drug research.
• It examines moral dilemmas related to topics like genetic
engineering, euthanasia, organs transplantation and medical
research
• It also promotes informal decision making and fosters ethical
awareness with medical and scientific communities
• Branch of Ethics that deals with the ethical evaluation that
include the morality of all actions that might help or harm
organisms capable of feeling fear
• It was introduced in the 1970’s by Van Renselger Potter for a
study aiming at ensuring the preservation of the biosphere
CONTINUATION…

 It was later used to refer a study of the ethical issues arising from health
care, biological and medical services.
 BIO means LIFE & ETHICS means CUSTOM
 It was preceded by medical ethics which focused primarily on issues arising
out of the physician-patient relationship

IMPORTANCE OF BIOETHICS: BIOETHICS education

for medical practice is essential in today’s complex world because:
 Medical policies and patient rights legislation are ever changing
 Health care system function differently from before
 Clinical practice now involves decision making about many issues
DEFINITION OF TERMS:

PROFESSIONAL ETHICAL THEORY

ETHICS  A system of principles a person

can determine what ought and
Rules of standards governing
ought not to be done
the conduct of a person or the
member of a profession
BIOETHICISTS

 Analyze the ethical implications of these

practices considering principles as
autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence
and justice
 Aims to establish guidelines for responsible
conduct in healthcare, balancing the pursuit
of scientific progress with respect for human
dignity and rights
 NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORIES

DEONTOLOGICAL TELEOLOGICAL
CONSEQUENTIALIST
 Norm for ethics lie in = norms for ethics are
= norms for ethics lie promotion of human determined
strictly by in intrinsic features
as determined by consequences of
of actions
natural inclinations actions
e.g. intention
(and/or Divine Law)

HEDONISM EGOISM UTILITARIANISM

ALTRUISM
=maximize your =consequences =consequences
=practice of concern
own pleasure for self for greatest good for the
BIOETHICAL THEORIES = based on
ethical principles

1.DEONTOLOGY 2.TELEOLOGY
 Goodness or badness is determined  Further developed by John Staurt
by the action Mill
 Only behavior that can be considered  Goodness or badness is determined
ethical is the one that has good will by the results or outcomes
behind it
 Can justify the behavior as ethical if
 DUTY ethics it produces GREATEST GOOD for the
 People should adhere to their greatest number
obligation and duties when analyzing  An explanation of something that
an ethical dilemma refers to its end, purpose or goal
 Comes from Greek word DEONTOS:  Describe our principles and
binding, right, proper obligations in terms of our
 DEON:theory attainment of certain goals or ends
CONTINUATION…..

DEONTOLOGY TELEOLOGY
 Rooted in the assumption that humans are  Theory of morality that derives duty or moral obligation
rational and act out objective and compel from what is good or desirable as an end to be achieved
them to do what is right  Study of end or purposes
 Also called UTILITARIANISM
 A decision is right when it conforms to an  Person performs the acts that benefit the most people
over riding moral duty and wrong only if it
regardless of personal feelings or the societal restraints
violates the moral duty
such as laws
 All decisions are made in such a way that the  Takes into account the law and is concerned with
decision could become UNIVERSAL LAW fairness
 Seeks to benefit the most people but through the fairest
 SUPEREROGATION: who exceed their duties
and obligations ( volunteering to die in the and the most just means available
 It values justice and includes beneficence at the same
place of someone)
time
 Eg.  Eg.
1. Keeping always promises 1. Someone lights a fire in the hope of warning people in
the house but accidentally the fire instead burns the
2. Obligation to protect younger sibling house= unethical due to the result
Continuation….

3.UTILITARIANISM 4.
 Greatest happiness principle (principle of
utility) : an action is good as it produces the
greatest happiness for greatest number of CONSEQUENTIALIS
people and bad it produces more harm than
benefit for the greatest number of
individuals
M
 Greatest happiness of the greatest number  Ethical theory that judges
is the test of right and wrong

whether or not something is right
Action is good if it produces as much or
more good than the alternative behavior by what its consequences are
 What is useful is good and consequently

 It does not specify a desired
Choose the action that produce the most
benefits and least cost of pain & outcome
unhappiness
 Strongest approach for bioethical decision  Says whether something is good
making which action will lead to the greatest or bad depends on its outcomes
ratio of benefit to harm for all persons
involved
TYPES OF TELEOLOGICAL THEORY

1. EUDAEMONISM 2.UTILITARIANISM
 Focuses on  Seeks the greatest
cultivating virtues balance of pleasure
for the sake of a (having subtracted
happy or flourishing pains) for everyone
life
 FORMS OF
UTILITARIANISM
A. CONSEQUENTIALISM =
ethical theory that judges the
morality of an action by its
3. ETHICAL EGOISM consequences
• Each person B. HEDONISM = pleasure is the
most important value and should
should do be prioritized over other things
whatever it is in C. MAXIMALISM = idea that an
their best interests agent can perform an action if he
can perform a specific instance of
that action

D. UNIVERSALISM =Ethical
principles are universal and apply
to everyone, regardless of their
differences
NATURAL LAW

 Theory asserting that certain  EXAMPLES:

rights or values are inherent by 1. Right to life
virtue of human nature and
2. Pursuit of happiness
can be universally understood
through human reason 3. Family bonds
 It posits that these laws are 4. Property ownership
immutable and unchangeable 5. Self defense
serving basis for morality and
6. Truth telling
justice throughout human
history 7. Religious freedom
8. Reproduction rights
9. Privacy
10. dignity
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY AND
TELEOLOGICAL
DEONTOLOGICAL THEORY
THEORY
TELEOLOGICAL THEORY
1. Ruled based view of ethics 1. Consequence based view of
ethics
2. First proposed by Immanuel
Kant 2. Introduced by Jeremy Bentham
& developed by JOHN STUART
3. Commonly known as KANTIAN
MIL
ETHICS
3. Also known as UTILITARIANISM
4. Goodness or badness is
determined by the ACTION 4. Goodness or badness is
determined by the RESULTS or
5. The only behavior that can be
OUTCOMES
considered is the one that has
GOOD WILL behind it 5. Can justify the behavior as
ethical if it produces greatest
good for the greatest number
VIRTUE ETHICS

Happiness and ultimate

purpose
Virtue as excellence
Moral Virtue and Mesotes
• One theory that can possibly provide a
comprehensive understanding of how an individual
can develop moral character is VIRTUE ETHICS.

 In Aristotle concept of Ethics, every act that the person does is

directed toward a particular PURPOSE, AIM or what the Greeks called
TELOS.
 Every pursuit of a person hopes to achieve a good
 Every individual does actions and pursuits in life and correspondingly
each of these activities has different aims.
 FOR ARISTOTLE, one does an act not only to achieve a particular
purpose but also believes such purpose can be utilized for a higher
goal or activity, thus, can be used to achieve even a higher purpose
and so on.
 The different goods that one pursues form a hierarchy of TELOI (plural
of telos)
Continuation….

 Important to Aristotle is clarity of the hierarchy of goals that the different

acts produce inorder for a person to distinguish which actions are higher
than the other.
 Highest Goal for Aristotle: Happiness or for the Greek EUDAIMONIA
 What defines a person is therefore her function or activity of reason. Any
human being can perform the activity of reasons, thus being human is
ACHIEVABLE.
 HOWEVER, the task of being human becomes more difficult because such
activity well takes more effort on the past of the person.
 Achieving the highest purpose of a human person concerns the ability to
function according to reason and to perform an activity well or
execellently.
 This excellent way of doing things is called VIRTUE OR ARETE by the Greek.
 For Aristotle, the HUMAN SOUL IS DIVIDED INTO TWO PARTS, the
IRRATIONAL ELEMENT (consist of the vegetative and appetitive aspects)
and the RATIONAL FACULTY ( exercises excellence in him)
Continuation…
RATIONAL FACULTY DIVIDED INTO
1. MORAL which concerns the act of doing
2. INTELLECTUAL concerns the act of knowing

 Although the condition of being excellent can be attained by a person

through the intellectual aspect of the soul, this situation does not
make him/her into a morally good individual
 Aristotle suggests that although the rational functions of a person
(moral and intellectual) are distinct from each other, it is necessary
for humans to attain the intellectual virtue of practical wisdom in
order to accomplish a morally virtuous act.
VIRTUE ETHICS
 Is a moral philosophy that emphasizes individuals
character and personality traits instead of their
actions
 Holds that an individual’s ethical behavior should be
measured by their trait-based characteristics such
as HONESTY, COURAGE AND WISDOM, rather than
by the consequences of their actions or the
particular duties they are obliged to obey
 It emphasizes cultivating good virtues to reach the
best possible outcome
CENTRAL CONCEPTS
1.VIRTUE 2.EUDAIMONIA
= refers to genuine excellence of = humans should act in ways that seek
character purpose and meaning
Example: = happiness/human flourishing
= include courage, honesty, justice & =it involves being true to oneself while
temperance. living according to one’s values and
= A virtuous person embodies these beliefs to reach a state of contentment
qualities and acts with integrity even Example:
when faced with temptation or adversity
=Taking care of your health by
engaging in physical activities or
pursuing relationship with friends and
family that enhances our sense of
belonging
3.PRACTICAL WISDOM
 refers to the importance of rational decision
making based on empirical evidence and
logical reasoning
 It involves understanding the consequences
of one’s actions and having good judgment
when faced with moral dilemma or
conflicting interests
Example:
= weighing the pros and cons before making a
big decision or being able to think critically
about different situations from multiple
MAJOR FORMS OF VIRTUE ETHICS
1. ETHICAL CARE
=This approach to ethical decision-making focuses on
caring for others, particularly vulnerable individuals
such as the sick, elderly, or disabled (Timpe & Boyd,
2015).

=For example, when a doctor is tasked with treating a terminally ill

patient, they should consider both the patient’s wishes and their own
obligations to provide medically and ethically sound care.
=In this example, the doctor’s moral decision might be influenced by
their sense of empathy, compassion, and justice rather than simply
following laws or regulations.
2. Agent-Based Theories

 This type of virtue ethics emphasizes individual agents’

importance and societal roles. It questions traditional views on
morality, focusing on large groups or abstract principles rather
than individual actions (Timpe & Boyd, 2015).
 An example would be an individual who chooses to pursue a
career path based on their own values rather than what
society expects them to do.
 In doing so, they are taking responsibility for their own
decisions and showing strength of character, an important
aspect of virtue ethics.
3. Eudaimonist Approach

 Eudaimonism is an ethical framework based on Ancient Greek

philosophy. It postulates that individuals should strive for self-
fulfillment by developing virtues such as courage, temperance, and
wisdom to lead a good life (Fowers, 2016).
 For example, if a person is faced with a difficult situation involving
personal conflict between two people who are close to them,
eudaimonism suggests that they should find a resolution that
involves clear communication and mutual respect.
 This approach puts less emphasis on punishment or retribution and
more emphasis on finding a just outcome that allows everyone
involved to flourish.
Critique of Virtue Ethics

1. Lack of Clear Guidance: First, critics argue that the approach does not
provide clear guidance for moral decision-making because there are no
universal virtues. Instead, each individual must decide which virtues they
should pursue to lead a good life (Swanton, 2010). Such lack of specificity can
make it difficult to determine the right course of action in any given situation,
especially if conflicting values are at play.
2. Subjectivity: some consider this approach to be too subjective and open to
interpretation (Hursthouse & Pettigrove, 2003). Since individual agents have
the autonomy to prioritize their values over social norms or legal regulations,
they may end up making decisions detrimental to their moral integrity or the
well-being of others.
3. Lack of obvious rewards for virtuous behaviors: critics point out that
virtue ethics does not provide enough incentive for individuals to act virtuously
since there are no external rewards or punishments associated with this
approach (Hursthouse & Pettigrove, 2003). Instead, people must have an
intrinsic motivation to behave according to their moral codes.
CONCLUSION
 Virtue ethics emphasizes cultivating good character traits within
individuals rather than simply evaluating the consequences of their
actions or adhering to a set of external rules or regulations.
 This philosophy is rooted in ancient Greek and Roman thought and has
influenced ethical thinking for centuries.
 Virtue ethics involves developing virtues such as honesty, courage,
compassion, and humility and using practical wisdom to make moral
decisions.
 Despite some limitations, virtue ethics is still a relevant and popular
approach to ethical decision-making in many contexts.
 Through careful reflection and practice, individuals can use this approach
to cultivate strong moral character and lead meaningful lives.

END