What is Bioethics?

“Bioethics” is a term with two parts, and each needs some explanation. Here, “ethics” refers to the
identification, study, and resolution or mitigation of conflicts among competing values or goals. The
ethical question is, “What should we do, all things considered?” The “bio” puts the ethical question into
a particular context.

Bioethics is commonly understood to refer to the ethical implications and applications of the health-
related life sciences. These implications can run the entire length of the bench-to-bedside “translational
pipeline.” Dilemmas can arise for the basic scientist who wants to develop synthetic embryos to better
study embryonic and fetal development, but is not sure just how real the embryos can be without
running into moral limits on their later destruction. How much should the scientist worry about their
potential uses?

Once treatments or drugs are in clinical trials involving human subjects, a new set of challenges arise,
from ensuring informed consent, to protecting vulnerable research participants to guarantee their
participation is voluntary and informed. Eventually, some of these new approaches exit the pipeline and
are put into practice, where providers, patients, and families struggle with how to best align the risks
and benefits of treatment with the patient’s best interest and goals. The added costs of new therapies
inevitably strain available resources, forcing hard choices about how to fairly serve the needs of all,
especially those already underserved by the health care system.

Questions in bioethics aren’t just for “experts.” Discussions of bioethical challenges take place in the
media, in the academy, in classrooms, but also in labs, offices, and hospital wards. They involve not just
doctors, but patients, not just scientists and politicians, but the general public.

Below you will find information on some specific areas within bioethics, as well as connections to a
variety of related educational resources.

Genetics

Much of medicine today is about genetics, whether for disease prevention, diagnosis,
treatment, or reproductive decision-making. Emerging genetic technologies and knowledge generate
numerous value conflicts. Consequently, bioethicists ask what is ethically appropriate if individuals
have a mutation for a serious and now untreatable genetic disorder. Are those individuals ethically
obligated to sacrifice their privacy rights to inform at-risk relatives? What are the ethical obligations
for the best interests of future possible children on the part of parents considering whether and how
to have children, when whole genome sequencing indicates serious potential risks associated with
conceiving those children? Should social policies govern such decisions? Should those policies
protect parental procreative liberty or enhance social responsibility for the best interests of those
future possible children? This is bioethics in the age of genomics.

 Blog: Gene Editing: God’s Will or God’s Won’t

 Podcast: Ethical Implications of Gene-Editing Human Embryos: Eijkholt and Fleck – Episode
13
 Video: Expanded Carrier Screening for an Increasingly Diverse Population: Embracing the
Promise of the Future or Ignoring the Sins of the Past?
 Faculty profile: Len Fleck

Neuroethics

As our ability to understand, measure, and manipulate the functioning of the human
brain and nervous system rapidly advances, so too does our need to grapple with the ethical, social,
and legal implications of these tools and neuroscientific knowledge. Neuroethics is an
interdisciplinary research area that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending paths to
action to address those issues. Neuroethics is also a platform for engaging different stakeholders to
interact and discuss the future of neuroscience and neurotechnologies. That platform can take
theoretical but also empirical and pragmatic approaches to the issues it covers, including the use of
neuroenhancement drugs, memory dampening techniques, neural prostheses, the clinical and non-
clinical uses of neuroimaging, and policy issues around neurotechologies. Neuroethics brings to light
theoretical and reflective issues regarding how we think about and treat each other.

 Blog: Can brain scans spot criminal intent?

 Podcast: Public Perception of Psychiatric Interventions: Cabrera, Bluhm, and McKenzie –
Episode 5
 Video: Recurrent and Neglected Ethical Issues in the Psychiatric Brain Stimulation
Discussion
 Faculty profile: Laura Cabrera