Biomedical Ethics for Engineers (eBook)

Ethics and Decision Making in Biomedical and Biosystem Engineering

Daniel A. Vallero (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2011 | 1. Auflage
408 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-08-047610-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Biomedical Ethics for Engineers provides biomedical engineers with a new set of tools and an understanding that the application of ethical measures will seldom reach consensus even among fellow engineers and scientists. The solutions are never completely technical, so the engineer must continue to improve the means of incorporating a wide array of societal perspectives, without sacrificing sound science and good design principles.
Dan Vallero understands that engineering is a profession that profoundly affects the quality of life from the subcellular and nano to the planetary scale. Protecting and enhancing life is the essence of ethics, thus every engineer and design professional needs a foundation in bioethics. In high-profile emerging fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology and green engineering, public concerns and attitudes become especially crucial factors given the inherent uncertainties and high stakes involved. Ethics thus means more than a commitment to abide by professional norms of conduct. This book discusses the full suite of emerging biomedical and environmental issues that must be addressed by engineers and scientists within a global and societal context. In addition it gives technical professionals tools to recognize and address bioethical questions and illustrates that an understanding of the application of these measures will seldom reach consensus even among fellow engineers and scientists.

? Working tool for biomedical engineers in the new age of technology
? Numerous case studies to illustrate the direct application of ethical techniques and standards
? Ancillary materials available online for easy integration into any academic program

Inhalt

Front Cover 1
Biomedical Ethics for Engineers: Ethics and Decision Making in Biomedical and Biosystem Engineering 4
Copyright Page 5
Table of Contents 6
Preface 12
DONE IS GOOD 15
STRUCTURE AND PEDAGOGY 17
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 20
Acknowledgments 22
Bioethics Questions Posed in Text 24
Prologue: Bioethics – Discovery through Design 26
A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO BIOETHICS 28
ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST CASE ANALYSIS 29
DRIVER’S EDUCATION ANALOGY 30
EXAMPLE CASE: PRIMING THE PUMP 31
CASE ANALYSIS 32
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 33
Chapter 1 Bioethics: A Creative Approach 34
THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS 35
Teachable Moment: Trust 37
THE PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT 37
Teachable Moment: The Engineer as Agent versus Judge 37
Amy the Engineer 40
Teachable Moment: Who Was Van Rensselaer Potter? 43
CREDAT EMPTOR 43
Teachable Moment: Capital Punishment, Abortion, and the Definition of Human Life 45
THE GOOD ENGINEER 46
FEEDBACK AND ENHANCEMENT OF DESIGN 47
Teachable Moment: The Good Engineer 49
The Profession of Engineering 50
ENGINEERING BIOETHICS AND MORALITY 51
Discussion Box: Ethics and the Butterfly Effect 52
“SMALL” ERROR AND DEVASTATING OUTCOMES 53
TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND ECONOMICS 53
Teachable Moment: The Dismal Scientist versus the Technological Optimist 56
ENGINEERING COMPETENCE 64
ENGINEERING: BOTH INTEGRATED AND SPECIALIZED 64
WHO IS A PROFESSIONAL? 65
WHAT IS TECHNICAL? 66
SYSTEMATICS: INCORPORATING ETHICS INTO THE DESIGN PROCESS 67
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 68
Chapter 2 Bioethics and the Engineer 74
MAJOR BIOETHICAL AREAS 76
CLONING AND STEM CELL RESEARCH 77
Teachable Moment: Nanog 81
HUMAN ENHANCEMENT 82
PATENTING LIFE 82
Teachable Moment: Patenting Germplasm 83
NEUROETHICS 84
ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION 85
RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF HUMAN RESEARCH 85
ANIMAL TESTING 86
Is the Research Worth It? 88
Systematic Reality Check 91
GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS 92
Transgenic Species 93
Food 93
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH: THE ETHICS OF SCALE AND THE SCALE OF ETHICS 95
TEMPORAL ASPECTS OF BIOETHICAL DECISIONS: ENVIRONMENTAL CASE STUDIES 95
Agent Orange 96
Japanese Metal Industries 99
Minamata Mercury Case 99
Cadmium and Itai Itai Disease 100
SCALE IS MORE THAN SIZE 102
Love Canal 103
Times Beach 104
Teachable Moment: The Whole Is Greater than the Sum of Its Parts 105
ACTIVE ENGINEERING 106
ETHICAL THEORIES: A PRIMER 108
Truth 109
Psychological Aspects of Ethics 111
Teachable Moment: The Physiome Project: The Macroethics of Engineering toward Health 114
Fairness 119
Value as a Bioethical and Engineering Concept 120
Technical Optimism versus Dismal Science 121
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 123
Chapter 3 An Engineered Future: Human Enhancement 128
PROFESSIONAL ZEITGEIST: HOW ENGINEERS THINK 131
IMPROVEMENT VERSUS ENHANCEMENT 134
Engineering Intuition 136
Engineers versus Economists 137
Intuiting Value 138
Deductive and Inductive Reasoning: Precursors to Intuition 139
Creativity 141
MORAL COHERENCE 145
CREATIVITY AND BIOETHICS 147
THE ETHICAL QUANDARY OF ENHANCEMENT 149
SCIENTIFIC DISSENT 151
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 159
Chapter 4 The Bioethical Engineer 164
Professional Trust 164
CODES OF ETHICS: WORDS TO LIVE BY 167
Discussion Box: The Code of Hammurabi 168
LIMITATIONS OF CODES OF ETHICS 172
Risk Shifting: Organochlorine Pesticides 172
Right of Professional Conscience 177
GROUPTHINK AND THE RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE 181
Animals and Engineers 183
Teachable Moment: Confined Animal Feeding Operations and the Moral Standing of Animals 184
MAKING ETHICAL DECISIONS IN ENGINEERING 185
Discussion Box: Four Persons Who Changed the Way We Think about Nature 187
John Muir 187
Rachel Carson 187
Christopher Stone 188
Gaylord Nelson 189
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 189
Chapter 5 Bioethical Research and Technological Development 192
BEYOND REGULATION 194
INTEGRITY 194
Teachable Moment: The Therapeutic Misconception 198
THE EXPERIMENT 198
THE HYPOTHETICO-DEDUCTIVE METHOD 199
RESEARCH CONFLICT OF INTEREST 200
Teachable Moment: Truth and Turtles 201
PROFESSIONALISM 203
TECHNOLOGY: FRIEND AND FOE 203
Teachable Moment: Medical Device Risk 204
Risk Homeostasis and the Theory of Offsetting Behavior 205
Artifacts 207
Automation and Mechanization of Medicine 208
Professional Consideration: Do Engineers Have Patients? 209
TECHNOLOGICAL RELIABILITY 210
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 215
THE ETHICS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY 218
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 220
Chapter 6 Bioethical Success and Failure 226
Teachable Moment: Engineering Measurement 226
MEASUREMENTS OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE 228
TECHNOLOGICAL SUCCESS AND FAILURE 228
RISK AS A BIOETHICAL CONCEPT 230
SAFETY, RISK, AND RELIABILITY IN DESIGN 231
PROBABILITY: THE MATHEMATICS OF RISK AND RELIABILITY 231
Discussion Box: Choose Your Risk 235
RELIABILITY: AN ETHICS METRIC 239
REDUCING RISKS 242
RISK AS AN ETHICAL CONCEPT 245
RISK-BASED ETHICS: THE SYLLOGISM REVISITED 248
CAUSATION 250
Biographical Box: Sir Bradford Hill 251
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 253
Chapter 7 Analyzing Bioethical Success and Failure 256
MEDICAL DEVICE FAILURE: HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING 257
Teachable Moment: How to Analyze a Medical Device 258
UTILITY AS A MEASURE OF SUCCESS 259
Failure Type 1: Mistakes and Miscalculations 261
Failure Type 2: Extraordinary Natural Circumstances 261
Failure Type 3: Critical Path 262
Failure Type 4: Negligence 268
Failure Type 5: Lack of Imagination 269
BIOTERRORISM: THE ENGINEER’S RESPONSE 269
Dual Use and Primacy of Science 271
Social Response of Engineering to Terrorism 273
SUCCESS PARADIGMS 273
CHARACTERIZING SUCCESS AND FAILURE 274
ACCOUNTABILITY 274
VALUE 275
CASE ANALYSIS 275
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 283
Chapter 8 Justice and Fairness as Biomedical and Biosystem Engineering Concepts 286
FAIRNESS AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE 288
Discussion Box: Harm and the Hippocratic Oath 296
Teachable Moment: Disposal of a Slightly Hazardous Waste 297
Solution and Discussion 297
Thought Experiment: Who Is More Ethical? 299
PROFESSIONAL VIRTUE AND EMPATHY 302
Teachable Moment: Albert Schweitzer and the Reverence for Life 302
REASON 304
Teachable Moment: Abortion, Fairness, and Justice 305
UTILITY 306
Teachable Moment: Utility and Futility 308
PRECAUTION AS A BIOETHICAL CONCEPT 310
Discussion box: The Tragedy of the Commons 311
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 312
Chapter 9 Sustainable Bioethics 316
GREEN IS GOOD 316
SUSTAINABILITY 317
Teachable Moment: Rational Ethics and Thermodynamics 318
LIFE CYCLES AND CONCURRENT ENGINEERING 325
Case Study Box: SIDS, A Concurrent Engineering Failure 326
Discussion Box: The Coffee Cup Debate 330
THE BIOETHICS OF COMBUSTION 332
SYSTEMATIC BIOETHICS 342
Seveso Plant Disaster 343
Poverty and Pollution 345
INTERDEPENDENCE 347
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 348
Chapter 10 Engineering Wisdom 352
ETHICS AND CHAOS 354
MACROETHICS AND MICROETHICS 355
FUTURE DIRECTIONS 356
THE HUMBLE ENGINEER 363
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 365
Epilogue: Practical Bioethics 368
SHUTTING DOWN THE PUMP 368
OBJECTIVITY AND FINDING TRUTH 369
Moral Courage 371
BIOETHICS RESOURCES FOR THE ENGINEER 372
SUGGESTED READINGS 373
Ethics of Emerging Technologies 373
Ethical Analysis, Reasoning, and Decision Making 374
Macroethics and Societal Risk 374
Teaching Engineering Macroethics 376
Teaching Engineering Microethics 378
USEFUL WEBSITES 379
NOTES AND COMMENTARY 381
Appendix 1 National Society of Professional Engineers Code of Ethics for Engineers 382
PREAMBLE 382
I. FUNDAMENTAL CANONS 382
II. RULES OF PRACTICE 382
III. PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATIONS 384
STATEMENT BY NSPE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 386
Appendix 2 Biomedical Engineering Society Code of Ethics 388
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATIONS 388
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING HEALTH CARE OBLIGATIONS 388
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH OBLIGATIONS 389
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TRAINING OBLIGATIONS 389
Glossary of Terms Likely to Be Encountered in Bioethical Decision Making 390
NOTE AND COMMENTARY 418
Name Index 420
Subject Index 422

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.4.2011
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Physiotherapie / Ergotherapie ► Orthopädie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Bauwesen
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Medizintechnik
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Umwelttechnik / Biotechnologie
• ISBN-10: 0-08-047610-4 / 0080476104
• ISBN-13: 978-0-08-047610-0 / 9780080476100