Midterm Flashcards
What was bioethics like before it was bioethics? (5)
- 6th century BC in anceint Greece
- Understanding of the world thru fact + reason
- Extended to health and disease
- Hippocratic Oath: early example of code of ethics for medicine
- Focus on the patient-physician relationship
What was Cicero’s pronouncement?
- “let the safety (welfare, health) of the ppl be the supreme law”
- focus is on the welfare of the community or population, sometimes at the expense of individuals
How have values evolved?
Polytheistic religions -> Judeo-Christian tradition -> Secularization
What were the doctors’ trials in Nuremberg? (3)
First of 12 follow-up trials from the initial trials by the International Military Tribunal
23 defendants, 20 of them doctors:
- 7 acquitted
- 7 death sentence
- rest went to prison
- war crimes, crimes against humanity
Turning point in ethics -> Developoment of Nuremberg Code
What is the Nuremberg Code (1947)? (10)
- Consent
- Results need to be useful
- Need to build upon preexisting work
- Need to avoid unnecessary physical + mental suffering
- Don’t conduct experiments if it causes death or disabling injury
- The degree of risk to be taken shouldn’t exceed the importance of the problem
- Preparations to minimize suffering during experiment
- Need to be qualified
- Participant is allowed to leave
- Scientist needs to stop experiment if bad things are suspected to happen
What was the effect of the Nuremberg Code? (3)
- Not accepted as law or official ethics guidelines by any nation or association
- Seen as an obvious response to brutal experimentations, lacking nuance
- But: influential as a building block + prototype, important milestone
Who developed the Declaration of Helsinki (1964)?
Developed by the World Medical Association, revised 7 times
How does the Declaration of Helsinki expand upon the Nuremberg Code? (7)
- Protection of vulnerable groups
- Scientific protocols
- Research ethics committees
- Privacy and confidentiality
- Placebo
- Post-trial provisions
- Research registration and publication
What was the effect of the Declaration of Helsinki? (2)
- Controversies and arguments
- Beecher raises 22 examples of questionable science after the war
What happened during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study? (5)
- Conducted 1932 - 1972
- Led by the USA Public Health Service + Center for Disease Control
- 400 African American men with syphilis, to study the disease untreated, but: 1947, penicillin readily available
- 100 deaths, 40 infections, 19 children born with congenital syphilis
- Major violation of ethical standards
What is the Belmont Report (1978)?
In response to the Tuskegee study, by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioural Research.
- Respect for persons: protecting the autonomy of all ppl, allowing for informed consent, courtesy and respect
- Beneficence: “Do no harm” while maximizing benefits for the reserach project + min. risks to subjects
- Justice: Fair distribution of costs and benefits to potential research participants
What were the effects of the Belmont Report? (2)
Huge influence on:
- The principles of biomedical ethics (Beauchamp and Childress 1982)
- Today’s research ethics guidance and training (TCPS2)
Describe the rise of bioethics (4)
- Amorphous expression of concern about untoward effects of advances in biomedical science
- Gradual formation into a coherent discourse and discipline
- National commissions
- Radical changes to the practice of scientific research
What are 3 reasons for bioethics?
- Conflicts in the area of tech and human vlaues
- Difficult questions to be answered, when trad tools are subject of controversy and scrutiny
- Openness to multidisciplinary work in dealing with personal and social aspects of human behaviour
What is utilitarianism?
Focus on minimizing consequences
What is deontology?
Doing things based on rules/duty
What is descriptive natural law?
Focus on nature’s urges
What is the theory of justice?
Focus on the social good
What are virtue ethics?
Ethics that focus on how someone can be virtuous
What are the ethics of care?
Focus on relationships
What is principlism?
Focus on having moral pillars
What are the 4 pillars of neuroethics as a discipline?
- Brain science and the self (identity)
- Brain science and social policy (eg. insurance)
- Ethics and practice of brain science
- Brain science and public discourse
Describe the cultural shift in patient engagement
Test subject -> Participant -> Co-producer of knowledge
What are 4 benefits of engagement?
- better experience
- better health outcomes
- higher quality research
- lower costs
Why is patient engagement relevant in regards to the design stage of research?
- Methodology
- Outcome measures
- Steering committee
Why is patient engagement relevant in reagrds to the recruitment stage of research?
- Methods
- Outreach
How is patient engagement relevant during the data collection stage of research?
- Research participants
- Peer data collection
How is patient engagement relevant in the data analysis stage of research?
- Member checking
- Interpretation
How is patient engagement relevant to the dissemination stage of research?
- Creation of KT materials
- Dissemination plan
- Active dissemination
Describe the research stages of having patient engagment with a purpose
- Capture attitudes, needs and values
- Evaluate existing platforms
- Develop novel tools and structures
- Sustainability and capacity building
How are the ethic concerns implicated in patient engagement?
The ethics community and public need to have greater overlap in values. Meaningful patient engagement must be aligned with the values of the patient community knowing and respecting these values is critical to create positive change