Indu Vanteru

13 November 2015
Intro to Bioengineering Problem Solving 215 Section AB
Assignment 4
Ethics Reflection
Dr. John Semmlow, a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University
once said, If you are ever successful in Biomedical engineering, and by that I mean
bring a device, drug or process to someone, you will kill someone. The idea is to kill as
few people as possible. This quote was highly influential in shaping my perception
regarding ethical issues in the biomedical field. Upon recognizing that it is inevitable to
evade death in the pursuit of medical advancement, the question which arises is how to
decide which lives are worth sacrificing for the benefit of society and who gets to decide
who lives and who dies. One of the most controversial issues within ethics deals with
animal testing. Computer models and tissue and cell cultures are a few of the ways in
which animal testing is being bypassed by biomedical researchers, however a few
experiments simply cannot avoid the use of animals as subjects since their biological
structure is most similar to humans. An issue which arises due to this is how to
determine when to move on to the testing stage from development in order to effectively
minimize the risk of the device or drug not functioning. There are many protocols
already in effect to ensure animal safety but there is no definite guarantee in place to
prevent ethical violations. Much of the testing on animals can go undocumented since
opponents of animal rights movements may think of the subjects as being inferior to
humans and as a dispensable resource. In some instances, the animals are tortured
through the testing of drugs, leading to severe psychological impairment, which
arguably could be more pain than death. Even though the subjects in question are not
human beings, is it ever okay to have a living thing undergo that amount of pain for the
benefit of science and humanity? In my opinion, this is an issue which could be avoided
due to the introduction of new technologies and computer programs. If a program is
developed to test the drugs or procedures effect on living things, then the animal and
human subjects can experience less pain, leading to a more effective trial.
Another ethical issue is the role of the heath care professional versus the patient
when determining whether to continue treatment in a case where death is approaching
or is inevitable. One instance where this issue is most prevalent is regarding euthanasia,
or physician assisted suicide. Is it a part of the doctors job description to let the patient
know when they think treatment is no longer a viable option and there is nothing more
they can do? If the patient chooses to have voluntary euthanasia, it will become easier
for doctors to abandon the hope of treating their pateints early in their care and claim
that patients agreed to it even though they might not have. In this case, forging
documents which give the doctors consent for physician assisted suicide is a relatively
simple process to falsify and there are not many measures that can be taken to prevent
this ethical violation. Another question to keep in mind is whether the patient is in a
state where they can make rational judgments such as choosing to end their lives. If
being under the influence of any type of drug means their judgment is impaired, then
will hospitalized pateints ever be able to make life or death decisions or will their loved

ones have to make the tough decisions for them. This example abides with the slippery
slope concept where practices such as these are looked down upon in society and once
these procedures gain more attention, there is no reversing the effect they have on
society.
Ethics is always a subject in which it is difficult for us, as a society to come up
with norms regarding issues within it, since there are a multitude of approaches to a
single problem. Since this is the case, come people may be ready to take drastic
measures to evade ethical considerations to move ahead in their research or project
which is detrimental. When ethical issues are properly addressed in projects, the
advancements they could lead to can be pivotal in improving the life of humans,
especially in the field of biomedical engineering.