Summary notes for the module. Defines and explains the biomedical ethical principles, animal experimentation, deontology and utilitarianism, mental health and society, clinical trials.
History of biomedicine:
18th-19th century = Europe - emergence of experimental medicine <- French revolution
Guilds/professions agreed codes of practice
Evolution of medicine:
1. Bedside
2. Library
3. Hospital
4. Laboratory
5. Community
Historical Figures + Events involved in the evolution of biomedicine:
Hippocrates = father of medicine
Theory of humours: bodily fluids must be balanced e.g. blood, phlegm, yellow bile + red bile
Age of Enlightenment: Robert Hooke developed microscopy
Koch + Pfeiffer investigated plague using microscope
Edward Jenner: smallpox vaccine
Inoculated cow pox from sore on hand produced
Inserted into arm to prevent smallpox
First vaccine
Burke and Hare: body snatchers 19th C
Supplied Edinburgh medical school with cadavers for dissection
Reliant on a common but not universal moral code of practice
Tuskegee Experiment:
Cure found by other scientists
Scientists left patients with syphilis to study natural progression
Henrietta Lacks: immortal HeLa cell line
Had cervical cancer -> tissue taken without knowledge during surgery
Cancerous cells self-replicate -> used all over world
WWII Nazi Experimentation:
Experimented on prisoners + people in concentration camps
e.g. freezing experiments, sterilisation, twin experiments
Politics of biomedicine progression:
Crisis -> urgency -> stimulates biomedical invention + development
Crisis = Conflict, colonisation, natural disasters, epidemics, economics..
Colonisation -> exposure to tropical diseases
Biomedical Ethics:
Internationally agreed principles in 20th Century:
1. Nuremburg Code <- due to Nazi experiments
, 2. Declaration of Helsinki <- developed by World Medical Association
Ethics to protect human subjects
Four biomedical ethical principles:
Not legally binding, no hierarchy
1. Autonomy: right to self-rule
Individual right + decision making
Informed consent of competent person
Incompetent -> coercion
2. Non-maleficence: duty to not harm others
3. Beneficence: resulting in or doing good
4. Justice: Distribute benefits, risks + costs fairly
Patients in similar conditions should be treated similarly
Paternalism: making decisions for someone else with the intention of benefitting them
Deontological Ethics: 18th C – Kant
➔ Humans should not be treated as a means to an end
Actions not outcomes
• Duty to act good wether or not outcomes are good
Utilitarianism: 18th C Bentham + 19th C Mill
➔ Produces most pleasure + least unhappiness
Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act
Type of Consequentialism: results determine whether act is right or wrong
• Better the outcomes, better the act
e.g. herd vaccination
Virtue Ethics: Plato, Aristotle + Anscombe
• Moral character of person carrying out the act
Whole of a persons life instead particular actions
Characters = compassion, discernment, trustworthiness, integrity, conscientiousness…
• Individuals virtues throughout their life
Ethics on Animal Experimentation:
Vivisection: any type of research on animals
Biotechnology: use science to alter characteristics of an animal
History:
1. Aristotle 340BC
2. Galen dissected pigs + goats
3. Avenzoar tested surgical procedures on animals
4. Loui injected anthrax into sheep -> germ theory: infections caused by microorganisms
5. Pavlov’s dogs = classical conditioning -> learned stimulus
6. Dolly the sheep = genetic clone
Legislations:
Royal Commission 1910
Cruelty to Animals Act 1976
The animals scientific procedures act 1986 -> need 3 licenses
1. Projects licence
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