Bioethics Health Article

Definition

Bioethics is the study of moral issues in the fields of biology and health.

Description

Always complex and controversial, the field of bioethics has grown even more so with the advent of advanced technologies and treatments. The mechanical respirator and the heart-lung machine have blurred the line between life and death. The legalization of morningafter pills and the abortion drug RU-486, approved for use in the United States in 2000, have intensified the already volatile abortion debate. In vitro fertilization techniques to help infertile couples conceive raise a host of ethical issues including how couples should choose sperm or egg donors, and what to do with fertilized eggs not implanted. Ethicists are also concerned with how scarce and expensive advanced treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, organ transplants, and the antiretroviral AIDS treatments should be distributed throughout society.

The rapidly evolving field of genetic engineering in particular, is introducing some of the greatest challenges ever faced in bioethics, as humans develop the ability to affect changes to living matter that were beyond imagining in the past decade or two. Current areas in experimental genetics of interest to bioethicists include:

• Cloning. The year 1997 marked the birth of the first clone, a sheep named Dolly produced from a cell of an adult female sheep. Since then hundreds of animals have been cloned, including bulls, cows, mice, monkeys, and pigs. Even clones of clones have been produced. The cloning controversy is multifaceted, with much of the controversy centered on the potential technical feasibility of cloning humans, although animal rights activists and others are also concerned that a substantial majority of cloned animals surviving to birth have significant birth defects. Humans should never be exposed to such risks, argue opponents of human cloning research. Some opponents fear a future in which cloning technology is used by narcissistic parents to custom design their offspring, while proponents see human cloning as a potentially useful technique to treat infertility or avoid known hereditary traits for disease. Several U.S. states have banned human cloning.
• Stem cell research. Stem cells, which are undifferentiated cells that give rise to specialized cells throughout the body, are considered one of science's best tools for finding cures for many diseases, as well as for developing bioartificial blood, skin, and organs that will not be rejected by the body. Stem cell research is currently hampered by the controversy surrounding the source of the cells, which are sometimes culled from aborted fetuses or from embryos left behind after fertility treatments, or are produced using cloning technology. Some religious groups such as the Roman Catholic Church condemn the use of human embryos for research, and Congress has passed restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
• Gene patenting. Advances in genome research wrought by the Human Genome Project and others have led many individuals and institutions, public and private, to apply for patents on genes and gene combinations. Many fear the patenting of genes may make genetic testing of patients prohibitively expensive. Although it will be technically possible in the not-too-distant future to analyze patients' genomes in the primary care environment and provide them with information about their future disease risk, this technology will not be economically feasible if it requires payment of multiple license fees.
• Genetic testing. Controversial genetic tests in use for several decades allow parents to learn about genetic diseases like sickle-cell anemia prior to birth. An experimental technique known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis gives couples even more control, enabling genetic analysis of embryos created through in vitro fertilization before they are implanted in the uterus. Many fear this technique may one day be used not just to pinpoint genetic diseases, but also to choose embryos with more desirable attributes. Other genetics tests that pinpoint flawed genes, and predict one's drug responses and vulnerability to disease offer numerous potential benefits, but ethicists are concerned about how this information will be used. Employers or insurers may use such information to discriminate, for example.