Biomedical
Engineering & Ethics
Theresa Kennedy
BME 181 Section
March 4, 2013
What are Ethics?
• The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class
of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.
• Moral principles
• Values relating to human conduct, with respect to the
rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the
goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such
actions.
Why are Ethics Important in
Biomedical Engineering?
• Any medical fields deal with serious and personal issues.
• Integrity and confidentiality are necessary to allow engineering to
conduct research with patients and for results to be deemed
relevant and progressive
• As technology advances so does our capabilities in engineering
and medical fields.
• These capabilities can allow us to achieve things people may deem
as science crossing into nature or religion/beliefs.
How are Codes of Ethics Created in
Biomedical Engineering?
• Combines ethics from both the medical field and engineering
fields.
• Examples:
• Medical: Hippocratic Oath
• Engineering: ABET & other organizations
• Biomedical engineers may not be medical practitioners but
they are considered indirect practitioners.
• Work closely with practitioners.
“Types” of Ethics in Biomedical
Engineering
• Professional Ethics
• Being honest and impartial
• Not publishing false reports
• Patient Ethics
• Confidentiality
• Full disclosure
• Natural & Human ethics
• Not “playing God”
• Not interfering with natural life and/or nature.
• Not crossing the line between improving quality of life and changing
life.
Consequences of Breaking the
Codes of Ethics
• Ethic standards are not necessarily legally prosecuted when
broken
• You lose credibility in your field.
• From peers and & elite organizations.
• May be sued in the form of torts, personal injury law suits.
Professional Ethics
Case Study Example
• Stem Cell Case (2005-2006)
• Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk, a researcher and
professor at Seoul National University,
published two papers in the journal
Science that claiming his team had
succeeded in creating human
embryonic stem cells through cloning.
• Allegations followed from a co-worker
that these paper was based on
fabricated data.
• As a result:
• the papers were editorially retracted.
• Dr. Hwang lost his position at Seoul
National University.
• The South Korean government ended
its financial and legal support of his
research.
Patient Ethics
Case Study Example
• James Wilson (1999)
• Gene therapy researcher at the
University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia.
• Working in gene therapy for OTC
deficiency (A genetic disorder of
resulting in a mutated and ineffective
form of the enzyme Ornithine
transcarbamylase)
• Directed a clinical trial involving gene
therapy that led to the death of 18year-old Jesse Gelsinger
• He failed to report the extent of the
adverse reactions .
Natural & Human Ethics
Case Study Example
• Human enhancement:
• Devices and techniques developed to support therapy or diagnosis may be used to
enhance healthy human traits beyond a normal level.
• Morally controversial because it moves traits beyond boundaries of the human
species, and therefore has the potential to create super humans.
• Somatic Cell therapy:
• genetic engineering of bodily cells other than sperm or egg cells in order to replace
defective genes with functional ones.
• Considerable agreement that somatic cell gene therapy to treat serious diseases is
ethical.
• Germline cell engineering:
• Not currently used therapeutically
• Controversial practice in which genes in eggs, sperm or very early embryos are
modified.
• The long term side effects of such engineering are currently unpredictable.
• Concerns it violates the rights of future generations or amounts to “playing God”.
• Superhuman controversies.
Ethics Associations
• Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)
• National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
• Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ABET Code of Ethics of
Engineers
The Fundamental Principles
Engineers uphold and advance the integrity, honor,
and dignity of the engineering profession by:
• Using their knowledge and skill for the
enhancement of human welfare.
• Being honest and impartial, and serving with
fidelity the public, their employers, and their
clients.
• Striving to increase the competence and prestige
of the engineering profession.
• Supporting the professional and technical
societies of their disciplines.
Ethics & Education!
• Ethics influence how and what we are taught in school.
• ABET accredits schools however in order to receive
accreditation programs must meet standards and teach their
students required material.
• That means ethics is influencing everything we are learning
right now!
Works Cited
Bank, A. "Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology
Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web.
03 Mar. 2013.
Brey, P. (2009). ‘Biomedical Engineering Ethics.’ Eds. Berg-Olsen,
J., Pedersen, S., Hendricks, V. (eds.), A Companion to
Philosophy of Technology. Blackwell.
"Scientific Research Ethics." General Resources. Illinois Institute
of Technology, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2013.
Smith, TJ, and N. Naurato. "Result Filters." National Center for
Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of
Medicine, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.