BIOETHICAL ISSUES AND MORALITY

Bioethics
Bioethics refers to the systematic study of human conduct in the areas of the life
sciences and health care.
Surrogate Motherhood
Is the labor of a surrogate mother a labor for love or labor for money?
Is surrogate motherhood a gesture of exploitation or gesture of empowerment?
Is surrogate motherhood moral or immoral?
-The transaction through which a woman bears a child for the convenience of
another woman.
-A surrogate mother is one who is paid money to bear a child for other people
and terminate her parental rights.
Features In Surrogate Motherhood
1. Woman is inseminated with the sperm of a man to whom she is not
married.
2. When the baby is born, the surrogate mother relinquishes her claim to the
child in favor of another, usually the man from whom the sperm was
obtained.
3. The woman (would-be surrogate mother) provides the egg, so, her
biological input is at least equal to that of the man.
Issues
Does surrogate motherhood separate sex and reproduction?
- Artificial insemination is a condition sine qua non in surrogate
motherhood.
- For traditional Catholic Christian morality, reproduction outside sex is
immoral.
Does not surrogate motherhood separate reproduction and marriage?
- The Catholic Church is emphatic in saying that reproduction is
reproduction only in the context of marriage. Thus, reproduction outside
sex is immoral. (Contradicting dogma)
Drug Addiction
What are drugs?
Defined as chemicals that when taken will influence the mind and
change behavior, mood, and mental functioning of the person.
Classification of Drugs
Therapeutic Drugs
Drugs that are meant to cure illness.
Types of Therapeutic Drugs:
1. Antipsychotic Drugs
- Are those that provide the following effects: mood- elevating, hypnotic,
and sedative or sleeping inducing.
- These drugs are used to treat mental sicknesses like paranoia, mania and
schizophrenia. They are not meant to cure diseases but only to suppress
their symptoms.
2. Antidepressant Drugs
- Drugs that stimulate the central nervous system: depressed patients are
required to take them.
i.e. Amphetamine, Cylert, Dexedrine, Ritalin
3. Anti- anxiety Drugs
- Those which are used to treat epilepsy, tension, anxiety, and depression.
- Valium, Librum, Serax
Nontherapeutic Drugs
These drugs are meant for personal enjoyment of pleasure, recreation,
and self-transcendence purposes.
i.e. alcohol, tobacco, heroine, coffee, cocaine, marijuana
All these drugs are nonsedatives, meaning they are nonsleep inducing
drugs.
Does a person who use drugs become immoral?
Nobody is a total non-drug user, anyway.
It depends, drugs are judged according to their affect and purpose
Suicide
Definition
The direct killing of oneself on one’s own authority that connotes total
resignation from mankind.
Thus, to commit suicide is to kill oneself: the agent of death is the person
himself.
Is suicide immoral?
Yes, it is an immoral total cessation of a God-given life.
Suicide is a negotiation to accept life courageously.
If life is God-given, then it is God alone who has the absolute right for total
cessation of human life.
Self-defense
Self-defense is not a duty but a right. It is not our duty to kill an aggressor; but we
have the right to defend ourselves from any unjust and illegal attack of an
aggressor.
“killing an aggressor in self-defense is justifiable since killing here is not a murder”
Conditions of Self-defense
1. Sole motive should no be hatred or revenge. If the act is masked by
hatred or revenge, the act is evil and morally wrong.
2. Physical force should be employed only at the time of the attack. This
means that the attack is actual not just an intimidation or threat.
3. Physical force should be employed only when the there is no other way of
repelling the attack. Peaceful negotiation or recourse to peace officers
should be done first.
4. No more injury should be inflicted than what is necessary to avert actual
danger. Death of aggressor should not be the direct goal of the defense.
If possible, the aggressor should only be physically incapacitated or
knocked unconsciously; there is no need to kill the aggressor.
5. The aggression is unjust. This means that the one attacked or the victim is
an innocent person.
Euthanasia (Painless Death)
Definition
Defined as the intentional killing of a presumably hopeless person.
Is euthanasia moral or immoral?
Euthanasia is immoral and ought not to be practiced since it is a violation of a
fundamental right of man, the right to life.
Since life originates from God, therefore, He alone has a sovereign right over life.
Abortion
Definition
It is an expulsion of an embryo or an inviable fetus from the body of a
pregnant woman with resulting death of the embryo or the fetus.
Human life begins at fertilization or conception.
Definition of Terms
Zygote
Refers to the developing human being from the time of conception until
the 14th day of gestation.
Embryo
Refers to the developing human being from the time of conception until
the 18th week of gestation.
Classification Of Abortion
Spontaneous Abortion
Commonly called “miscarriage” if it occurs earlier than the child is
expected to be born. In layman’s term, “miscarriage” refers to involuntary
expulsion of a nonviable fetus and therefore not abortion.
Indirect Abortion
The foreseen but unintended loss of the fetus following a medical
procedure necessary to preserve the life or health.
Thus, indirect abortion falls under indirect voluntary act.
Induced Abortion
Any procedure by which the normal course of the development of the
child before birth is intentionally inferred.
Thus, induced abortion is deliberate cessation of pregnancy in order to
destroy the life of the fetus.
Kinds of Induced Abortion
Criminal Abortion
It means an abortion performed to kill the unwanted child. Criminal
abortion is punishable by law since it is murder.
It is, therefore, immoral.
Therapeutic Abortion
It is an abortion which is directly and deliberately performed to save the
life of the mother. This may happen when there is ectopic pregnancy.
Mutilation
Definition
Is meant by any action performed to injure or destroy some part or
function of the body. This means that mutilation is intended to lessen the
integrity of the human body.
Classification of Mutilation
Minor Mutilation
Any act performed to lessen the sum total of the body which does not
include the destruction of the functional integrity of human body.
i.e. tooth extraction, circumcision & etc.
Major Mutilation
Surgery
The preservation of life and health is sometimes impossible.
Thus, removal of a diseased organ or part of the body is moral and valid.
Organ Transplantation
This is the transfer of any organized living matter to another. This include,
blood transfusions, bone graft, skin graft and etc.
Kinds of Tissue Transplant
Homograft
Transplantation of tissue from a living or a dead human body.
i.e. kidney transplant and bloodletting
Is homograft moral?
Heterograft
Transplantation of a tissue from an animal to human being.
Is this moral?
Yes, as long as it does not alter the psychological or emotional sphere of
it’s recipient.
Autograft (skin graft)
Transplantation of one’s own tissue to another area of the body.
Is heart transplant moral?
- Yes, if the donor is already dead.
When do you consider a person is dead? When the heart stops?
- “Death” means “brain death” and not cessation of the heart.
Sterilization
This is not synonymous with frigidity or impotency since it means causing
inability to reproduce or procreate.
Kinds of Sterilization
Direct Sterilization
To stop production of fertility for immediate purpose of impossibility o
reproduction.
i.e. vasectomy and ligation
Is this moral?
No, because it becomes contraceptives to avoid conception or
procreation.
Indirect Sterilization
Which occurs as a nondeliberate consequence of a removal of a
diseased organ o tissue or part of a body.
In other words, indirect sterilization falls under indirect voluntary act.
Therefore, it is moral.
Plastic Surgery
Which is intended to restore or repair of the body that have been injured,
deformed, or lost.
Is plastic surgery moral?
Yes, if it conquers inferiority complex from the defect part of the human
body.