BIOETHICAL ISSUES

NCM 108
Week 1

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF NURSING
 Define & explain important terms and
issues related to ethics.

Objectives
Apply ethical reasoning and discuss
decision making process to address
bioethical issues/situations of ethical
distress and moral dilemma.
Definition of Terms:
1. Ethics

2. Biology

3. Bioethics

4. Health Ethics

5. Professional ethics
ETHICS

•ETHICS - comes from Greek word “ethos”

characteristics way of acting which means
custom or particular behaviour.
•ETHIKOS - means Moral duty; Latin- Mos,
Morrs, Moris (Way of Acting)
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF NURSING
ETHICS

• Science of correct living and doing.

• Concerned with the meaning of such words as right, wrong, good, bad,
ought, duty. Studies of human acts or conduct from a moral
perspective as to whether they are good or bad.
• According to Webster- the study of the standards of conduct and
moral judgment. It teaches nurses to judge accurately the moral
goodness of any human actions.
• A practical and normative science based on reason which studies
human acts and provides norms for their goodness or badness
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF NURSING
BIOLOGY

The word biology is derived from the greek words

/bios/ meaning /life/ and /logos/ meaning /study/ and
is defined as the science of life and living organisms.

An organism is a living entity consisting of one cell e.g.

bacteria, or several cells e.g. animals, plants and fungi.

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES

COLLEGE OF NURSING
BIOETHICS

• BIOETHICS, branch of applied ethics that studies the philosophical,

social, and legal issues arising in medicine and the life sciences. It is
chiefly concerned with human life and well-being, though it
sometimes also treats ethical questions relating to the nonhuman
biological environment.
• Bioethics is a subfield of ethics that explains ethical questions related
to the life sciences specifically helping people make decisions about
their behavior and about policy questions that governments,
organizations, communities and individuals may face when they
consider how best to use new biomedical knowledge, technology and
innovations and research.
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF NURSING
• Health ethics looks at
moral issues involved in
our understanding of life.
• In health ethics, we ask
questions such as when
does life begin, how should
it continue, and when does HEALTH ETHICS
it end.
• Often we think of health
ethics and its relationship
with healthcare, medicine
and human values.
 Professional Ethics
• Professional ethics are principles
that govern the behavior of a
person or group in a business
environment.
• Like values, professional ethics
provide rules on how a person
should act towards other people
and institutions in such an
environment.

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES

COLLEGE OF NURSING
Bioethical Issues

Abortion Euthanasia Suicide

Determination
of death In-Vitro Stem cell
(biological and fertilization technology
clinical death)

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES

COLLEGE OF NURSING
 • Abortion is used in this discussion to refer
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
to deliberate removal of a fetus from the
womb of a human female, at the request or
through the agency of the mother, so as in
fact to result in the death of the fetus but
with insignificantly small risk to the life or
health of the mother.
Abortion • Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy by
removal or expulsion of an embryo or
fetus before it can survive outside the
uterus. Abortion that occurs without
intervention is known as a miscarriage or
spontaneous abortion.

COLLEGE OF NURSING
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY • EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED
PHILIPPINES
SUICIDE involve taking deliberate
action to end or assist in ending the
life of another person on
compassionate grounds.

Euthanasia
• There is considerable disagreement
about the acceptability of these acts
and about whether they are ethically
distinct from decisions to forgo life-
sustaining treatment.

COLLEGE OF NURSING
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES

• Suicide is death caused by

injuring oneself with the intent to
die.
• A suicide attempt is when someone
Suicide harms themselves with any intent
to end their life, but they do not die
as a result of their actions.

COLLEGE OF NURSING
 • A determination of death must
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
be made in accordance with
accepted medical standards’.
• This standard, through
• (1), incorporates the

Determination traditional cardiopulmonary

test into the modern
definition of death.
of Death • It is (2) which serves as
the 'sufficient' definition of
death which can address
more complex cases

COLLEGE OF NURSING
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
• In vitro fertilisation is a process of
fertilisation where an egg is
combined with sperm in vitro.
• The process involves monitoring
and stimulating a woman's
In Vitro ovulatory process, removing an
ovum or ova from their ovaries and

Fertilization
letting sperm fertilize them in a
culture medium in a laboratory.

COLLEGE OF NURSING
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
• Stem cell technology is a rapidly
developing field that combines
the efforts of cell biologists,

Stem Cell geneticists, and clinicians and

offers hope of effective treatment

Technology
for a variety of malignant and non-
malignant diseases.

COLLEGE OF NURSING
 Read a news/article (online or print).

ACTIVITY Select news with a particular Health Ethics

related issue/concern:

Answer the following questions:

(Health Ethics A. Explain why you selected this news.
B. What are the highlighted ethical principles, values, morals, etc?
Issue) C. What were the responses of the agencies/institution/government
to this news?
D. What is your reaction to this response?
E. What will be your response if given the opportunity to do so?

*Make sure to attach the selected news article, either APA reference or article
itself.

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY – PHILIPPINES

COLLEGE OF NURSING
 ACTIVITY for next week
• Given the following scenario, divide yourselves into 6 groups.
• The first 3 groups will be FOR a resolution
• The next 3 groups will be AGAINST a resolution

• You will debate on the following issues:

• Abortion
• Euthanasia
• Suicide

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF NURSING
Roles per Team

Opening Rebuttal Concluding

Speaker Speaker Speaker

Researcher Organizer Leader

 Pro Position (5 minutes)

Rebuttal (Con Team) – 3 minutes

DEBATE Con Position ( 5 minutes)

INSTRUCTIONS
Rebuttal (Pro Team) – 3 minutes

Team questions each other (5 minutes/both teams)

Closing Statements (3 minutes/both teams)

 Source of PEER-REVIEWED
JOURNAL ARTICLES,
BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS,
MAGAZINES AND
NEWSPAPER
ARTICLES,
Evidences that
you may use:

WEBSITES, AND INTERVIEWS WITH AVOID PERSONAL

EXPERTS ON THE OPINIONS.
TOPIC.
 THANK YOU!
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
PHILIPPINES
COLLEGE OF NURSING