Bioethics

Morality & Ethics

Morality – refers to the quality of human act

Bioethics -Science that deals with the study of the morality of human conduct concerning human life in
all aspects, from the moment of its conception to its natural end.

Health ethics – it is a Science that deals with the study of the morality of human conduct as it concerns
with health care delivery services.

Professional Ethics – moral science that treats the obligations by which a member of a profession owes
the public, to the profession and to his clients.

Ethics – refers to the philosophical and practical science that deals with the study of morality of human
acts or human conduct.

Ethical Codes
CODE OF ETHICS (Corporate or business ethics)
General principles of an organization’s beliefs on matters such as mission, quality, privacy or the
environment

CODE OF CONDUCT (Employee ethics)

Designed to influence the behavior of employees

CODE OF PRACTICE (Professional ethics; professional responsibility)

Discusses difficult issues, difficult decisions
Provides clear account of what behavior is considered ‘ethical’ or ‘correct’ or ‘right’ in the circumstances
Profession and Occupation
Job

 Series of social and technical activities resulting to production of goods or establishment of

services
 an activity that serves as one’s regular source of livelihood
Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled, manufacturing, mining, construction,

 White collar vs blue collar job

 White collar job – office

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OCCUPATION AND PROFESSION

Profession Occupation

Needs extensive training and specialized does not need any extensive training
knowledge ; has to undergo higher
education

Paid for his particular skills and his deep Paid for what they produce, not with
knowledge their knowledge

Can be independent Supervise by another

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

HONESTY
The professional do not keep any necessary information or lie to the patient w/ regards to his condition

BENEFICENCE (DOING GOOD)

  Professional uses his or her knowledge and skills for the benefit of the patient (do not harm our
Px while we are trying to help them)
JUSTICE

 The professional should not be bias on his service in the basis of a patient’s race, religion,
nationality, or other personal characteristic

AVOIDING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

 The professional should not only think what could benefit him but instead the goodness of the
patient

PLEDGING TO DO NO HARM

 The professional must avoid all the actions that could give bad effects to the patient

Patient’s Duties and Rights

Patient’s Duties

 Refers to what obligations we owe to others or responsibilities we have under the rule in question
Patient’s Rights

 Refers to the moral power incumbent upon the dignity of the patient as a human person which is
enjoined by both natural law and positive law requiring that what is due must be rendered to the
patient as justice demands
DUTIES OF A PATIENT

 to participate in a “healthcare jurisdiction”

 to uphold his own health
 to protect the health of others
 to seek and access healthcare responsibly
 Duty of truthfulness, compliance and inpatient conduct
 Duty of recovery or maintenance
 Duty of research participation
PATIENT’S BILL OF RIGHTS

 Right to considerate and respectful care

 Right to obtain from his physician complete current information concerning his diagnosis,
treatment and prognosis
 Right to receive from his physician information necessary to give informed consent prior to the
start of any procedure and/or treatment
 Right to refuse treatment
  Right to every consideration of his privacy concerning his own medical care program
 Right to expect that all communications and records pertaining to his care should be treated as
confidential

Duties of a Healthcare Provider

Preserve life

 Provide all patients with caring attention (including the terminally ill)
Do good

 Treat every Px w/ respect & courtesy

BASIC UNETHICAL AND UNPROFESSIONAL PRACTICES

Sizing up one’s professional capacity before others

Maligning the credibility and reputation of a member of the team or of the same professional group to
clients or others

 Maligning- badmouthing
 Performing action beyond one’s professional functions and capacity
 Having illicit and sexual relationship w/ a client
 Embarrassing a colleague or subordinate before a patient
 Breaking the rules on confidentiality and seal of secrecy
 Fabricating patient’s record and medical certificates for any purposes

Malpractice (maling pagsagawa)

 unprofessional treatment resulting to injuries

 wrong execution of duties and responsibilities of a health care institution

Negligence (kapabayaan)

 failure to use a reasonable amount of care when such failure results in injury

DEFAMATION

 uttering or publishing of slanderous words to injure another’s reputation

SLANDER

 utterance in the presence of another person w/ false statement damaging to a third person’s
reputation

LIBEL

 malicious writing bringing contempt or public derision

Ethical Issues
Euthanasia (Arguments For & Against Euthanasia)
Classification of Euthanasia
Voluntary Euthanasia the patient is conscious and makes the decision to die.
Involuntary Euthanasia the patient is unconscious and the decision is made by a family member or
relative.
Passive EuthanasiaRefusing to take treatment that could prevent the patient from dying, resulting in a
sooner death.
Active EuthanasiaTaking specific steps to cause the person’s death, by poison, suffocating and
overdose.
Assisted Suicide  Providing the person with a means to die.

Babydoe
Brain Death, (PVS) Persistent Vegetative State (Withholding & Withdrawing Life Support)
Abortion: Pro-life or Pro-choice Issue;
Family Planning (Accidental babies over planed babies)
Sexual Misconduct in Healthcare Practice &
Conflict of Interest
Ethical Issues and the AIDS Pandemic;
Medical Confidentiality
Organ Donation Issue

 Process of removing a failing or damage organ in the body of the recipient and replacing it with
an organ from a donor
 1. Kidney transplantprocess to place a healthy kidney from a live or deceased donor into a
person whose kidneys no longer functioning. Nephrectomy is the surgical removal of a kidney
2. Liver transplantknown as hepatic transplant. Procedure where in damaged liver of the
recipient is replaced by a portion or an entire liver from a donor
3. Lung transplantknown as pulmonary transplantation. Surgical procedure that involves the
replacement of damage lung(s)

Ethical Issues on Cloning

 Creation of a genetic copy of sequence of DNA or of the entire genome of an organism

 Somatic Cell nuclear transfer transferring the nucleus of a somatic cell into a nucleated oocyte
which an oocyte from which most of the nucleic DNA has been removed

Therapeutic cloningstem cell cloned embryos could be highly valuable for the creation of
cellular models of human diseases

Reproductive cloningused for creating human embryos with the intention of gestating them
into fully-grown human beings

Artificial birth control

 Uses artificial methods of birth control to deliberately prevent or reduce the chances of
pregnancy. The natural methods of birth control can be classified as non mechanical and non-
hormonal

3main routes to prevent pregnancy

1. Contraception
 Process of preventing fertilization of ovum by sperm cells
2. Contragestion
 Process of preventing the implantation of blastocyst
3. Abortion
 Chemical or surgical induction of the developing embryo or fetus

Transcultural health

Reference:
Ethics of Health Care: A Guide for Clinical Practice; 2 nd edition; Raymond S. Edge
Medtech Code of Ethics

Board of Medical Technology

Code of Ethics
As I enter into the practice of Medical Technology, I shall accept the responsibilities
inherent to being a professional;
 I shall uphold the law and shall not engage in illegal work nor
cooperate with anyone so engaged; I shall avoid associating or being identified with any
enterprise of questionable character;
 I shall work and act in a strict spirit of fairness to employer, clients, contractors,
employees and in a spirit of personal helpfulness and fraternity toward other members of the
profession;
 I shall use only honorable means of competition for professional employment or services
and shall refrain form unfairly injuring, directly or indirectly, the professional reputation, projects or
business of a fellow medical technologist; I shall accept employment from more than one
employer only when there in no conflict of interest;
 I shall perform professional work in a manner that merits full confidence and trust carried
out with absolute reliability, accuracy, fairness and honesty; I shall review the professional work of
other medical technologists, when requested, fairly and in confidence whether they are
subordinates or employees, authors of proposals for grants or contracts, authors of technical
papers or other publications or involved in litigation;
 I shall advance the profession by exchanging general information and experience with
fellow medical technologists and other professionals and by contributing to the work of
professional organizations;
 I shall restrict my praises, criticisms, views and opinions within constructive limits and
shall not use the knowledge I know for selfish ends; I shall treat any information I acquired about
individuals in the course of my work as strictly confidential, and may be divulged only to
authorized persons or entities or with consent of the individual when necessary;
 I shall report any infractions of these principles of professional conduct to the authorities
responsible of enforcement of applicable laws or regulations, or to the Ethics Committee of the
Philippine Association of Medical Technologists as may be appropriate.

To these principles, I hereby subscribe and pledge to conduct myself at all times in a manner befitting the
dignity of my profession.