A Defense of Universal Principles in Biomedical Ethics

Author(s):  
Tom L. Beauchamp
2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 588-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faye E Thompson

Practitioners’ ethical orientation and responses vary between practice settings. Yet, currently, the ethics for midwifery practice that is explicit in the literature and which provides the ideals of socialization into practice, is that of bio(medical)ethics. Traditional bioethics, developed because of World War II atrocities and increased scientific research, is based on moral philosophy, normative theory, abstract universal principles and objective problem solving, all of which focus on right and wrong ‘action’ for resolving dilemmas. They exclude context and relationship. Personal narratives of mothers and midwives contest the appropriateness of these accepted values and systems for childbirth because they induce conflict between work-place/service provider ethics and personal/professional midwifery ethics. In contrast to the disembedded and disembodied approach of biomedical ethics, an ethically adequate response in midwifery practice resonates more with the ethics of intimates, such as feminist virtue ethics.


Author(s):  
Anna Koval ◽  

he end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twentyfirst century has begun the rapid development of scientific researches in the biological and medical fields. This process is associated with using of fundamentally new methods, which are primarily aimed at the disease prevention, as well as the introduction into the treatment of human diseases with the latest scientific and innovative technologies, methods and techniques of their application. These opportunities in the development of scientific technologies in the field of biology and medicine have led to the emergence of such a direction of scientific activity as "biotechnology". The proposed article notes that using of biomedical technologies has caused a number of new problems in the field of law and ethics. Legal arrangement in the field of the health protection have become much more complicated. Thanks to new opportunities, today these relations regulate rights and responsibilities of a fairly large number of people. Modern relations in the field of medical services and medical care lead to the emergence of new approaches to their regulation by both legal and ethical norms. In the past, relations in the field of the health protection were usually between two subjects, a doctor and a healthcare consumer. Nowadays, in a medical practice, relations in the field of the health protection involve: a health-care consumer, his family members (e.g., in the case of hereditary diseases diagnosis, blood and organ donation etc.) and third parties (e.g., organ donation, reproductive cell donation, surrogacy etc.). In the general doctrinal concept, biotechnology is the industrial use of living organisms or their parts (microorganisms, fungi, algae, plant and animal cells, cellular organs, enzymes etc.) for product producing or modifying, improving plants and animals, and in medical practice - in relation of the individual human organs (or body as a whole) functioning. These circumstances require improving the legal regulation of modern medicine public relations, bringing them into line with emerging realities. Moreover, the specifics of relations in this field determines the specifics of their legal regulation. The application of new medical technologiesin relation to human treatment has given rise to a significant number of moral and ethical problems that could not be solved within the framework of medical ethics and deontology alone. In connection with this, the way out of the current situation could be the consolidation of bioethics as an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, as a science, which makes it possible to explain moral, ethical and legal aspects of the medicine. This, for example, determines the allocation of medical law in an independent branch of law in some Western countries and Ukraine. The article focuses on biomedical ethics, which is a component of the medical activities system regulation. In the context of considering the levels of social regulation of medical activities, bioethics (biomedical ethics) is an interdisciplinary science that studies moral and ethical, social and legal problems of medical activities in the context of human rights protection. Bioethics should create a set of moral principles, norms and rules that are binding on all mankind and delineate the limits of scientific interference in the nature of the human body, the transition through which is unacceptable.


Author(s):  
ALEXANDRA A. TROITSKAYA

The two main approaches to the use of the comparative method in legal research, functional and cultural, have some "predetermined" considerations regarding the results that will (or should) be discovered by comparing various legal phenomena — should the emphasis be on similarities or differences between these phenomena. These considerations are based on the vision of, respectively, the universal or pluralistic nature of law of various societies, and in fact they are able to correct substantially the process of cognition of legal phenomena using the comparative method, adjusting it to the desired result. In the case of similarities, we can talk about artificially narrowing the circle of countries under investigation. In the case of differences, the isolation of systems and the uniqueness of their cultural characteristics are unreasonably exaggerated. The alternative assumptions presented in the theory of comparative law regarding the existence of universal principles of law or the fundamental uniqueness of each legal system require a critical rethinking of constitutional provisions and practice in comparative studies. The use of the comparative method in constitutional law is not reducible to the implementation of the ideas of political philosophy, and objective conclusions should not be replaced by predetermined normative guidelines. The similarities and differences revealed by the researcher of constitutional ideas, norms and practices can be considered as a result of comparison of independent value.Constitutional law is associated with a variety of substantial constructs existing in the world, not excluding, however, their intercommunication. Understanding these constructions requires attention to both the similarities and the differences in specific legal orders (as well as the reasons for their functioning in this, and not another form). The use of the comparative method in the absence of striving for predetermined results is simultaneously aimed at understanding the laws of development of constitutional institutions and maintaining the horizon of their diversity as an important component of this development. Each time, the researcher should distance himself from his prejudices regarding the similarities or differences between the institutes under study, rechecking whether the obtained results are really the results of applying the comparative method, and not the initial constructions.The logic of a comparative study corresponds to the construction of theories of "middle level", aimed at forming the theoretical model of a particular legal in-stitution, taking into account the practice of implementing this institution in specific states. The focus on middle-level theories within the framework of the comparative method allows one to go beyond the description of single systems, formulate conclusions at the level of generalization that ensure the comparability of the studied objects, and at the same time maintain an understanding of the diversity of constitutional models.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-237
Author(s):  
Stacy A. Drake ◽  
Erica T. Yu

Researchers often have a need to conduct human tissue research using postmortem specimens. Medicolegal death investigation organizations are untapped areas for obtaining postmortem human tissues. Because death investigation organizations are not required by law to conduct or support research, an ethical dilemma exists in whether or not researchers should use cadaver tissues for research purposes. This paper analyzes the ethical issues of using human tissues through discussion of principles of biomedical ethics, respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. Policy makers, organ and tissue procurement organizations, medicolegal death investigation organizations, and scientists should be aware of these principles when considering researchers requests. The authors conclude that with Institutional Review Board approval and next of kin consent, there are prevailing reasons for using postmortem tissue for research.


2018 ◽  
Vol 0 (5.92) ◽  
pp. 22-24
Author(s):  
Yu.Yu. Kobeliatskyi ◽  
T.V. Kanchura ◽  
Ye.V. Petrashenok
Keyword(s):  

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