BIOETHICS

INTRODUCTION
Maria Luisa T. Uayan, DHSc, MSN,RN
Professor - Bioethics
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 At the end of the unit the learner will be able to:

1. Discuss the concept of BIOETHICS and other

related terminologies;

2. Apply ethical concepts in order to clarify ethical

issues in healthcare;

3. Utilize ethical concepts through the process of

ethical reflection in order to examine personal
values; and be sensitive with ethical issues in
the practice of the profession.
 INTRODUCTION
• Every health care provider is a MORAL AGENT;

• A moral agent judges the GOODNESS or WRONGNESS of his goal

and actions;

• GOODNESS must be determined by considerations of the TOTAL

MAN which includes their values, needs, and ultimate end;

• Decisions must be made responsibly considering CORRECT MORAL

REASONING and WELL GROUNDED JUDGEMENT;

• It a PERSONAL CHOICE and COMMITMENT

Definition
• ETHICS
of terms
• It is a PRACTICAL science of morality of human
conduct that implies direction;

• Science – deals with complete and systematic body

of factual and empirical data and reasoning;

• Moral – dictates of reason on how things should be

• Human conduct – deliberate, free and how one

person SHOULD ACT
• Ethics - concerns the needs and values of
human persons in all matters of human
concern including HEALTH; nothing is more
human and personal than HEALTH;

• Ethics is concern with the study of social

morality and philosophical reflection on its
norms and practices;

• Moral issues deals with respect for life,

freedom, love, issues that provokes
conscience; issues that responds to ought,
should, right, wrong, good, bad and
complicated
 Ethics addresses the question “WHAT SHOULD
I DO IN THIS SITUATION?”

 Ethics offers formal process for applying

MORAL philosophy

 Ethics gives us a ground work for MAKING

LOGICAL and CONSISTENT decisions;

 Decisions that are based on MORALITY or

MORAL THEORY (e.g. DIVINE COMMAND)

 After careful deliberation the health care

professional considers what is the BEST ....
BIOLOGY
Science of the study of life processes in
both animals and plants

BIOETHICS
Is the division of ethics that relates to
human life or the ethics of the life
sciences and healthcare delivery and
research
• HEALTH ETHICS
• Is the division of ethics that relates to
human health; it is also considered as
ETHICS for the HEALTH PROFESSIONS

• PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
• Is the division of ethics that relates to
professional behavior
THE HUMAN PERSON
Maria Luisa T. Uayan, DHSc, MSN,RN
Professor - Bioethics
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• At the end of the session the learners will be able to:

• Differentiate the concepts of PERSON, HUMAN ACTS

and ACTS of MAN;

• Discuss the concepts of KNOWLEDGE, FREEDOM, and

CONSCIENCE;

• Utilize the concepts of Knowledge, Freedom and

Conscience in making ethical decisions.
INTRODUCTION
• In order to understand human health and
to make ethical decisions about how to
care for human health in a way that
protects human values, we must be
aware of the true worth and dignity of
human person.
THE HUMAN PERSON
• The PERSON
• (Biblical) Created in the image and likeness of God;
differing from animals due to possession of spiritual
intelligence and free will;

• God produces the human body through the

cooperation of human parents; the creation of the
human soul is direct act of God;

• Each person is unique and irreplaceable; and are

called not only to maturity but to eternal life
• God does not give His gifts equally to all; since
each person is unique and complements with
the other members of the community they
belong;

• The extreme inequality between persons we

see in our world is not a work of God but of
human sins; which brought about unjust social
conditions, pollutions, neglect and greed.
HUMAN ACTS & ACTS OF MAN
• Human act is an act which proceeds from the
deliberate free will of man. Man knows what
he is doing and freely chooses to do what he
does;

• Not all acts are Human Acts; for an act to be

human it must have:

• KNOWLEDGE and FREEDOM

HUMAN ACTS & ACTS OF MAN
• KNOWLEDGE – of what it is about and what it
means
• facts, information, and skills acquired by a
person through experience or education; the
theoretical or practical understanding of a
subject:

• awareness or familiarity gained by experience

of a fact or situation
•WHAT do I do?

•WHY do I do it?
•Are you BORN with Knowledge?

•Do you GAIN Knowledge?

Ways of knowing
• Language,
• Sense perception,
• Emotion,
• Reason,
• Imagination,
• Faith,
• Intuition
• Memory.
Areas of knowledge
• Mathematics
• Natural sciences
• Human sciences
• Arts
• History
• Ethics
• Religion
• Indigenous knowledge systems.
HUMAN ACTS & ACTS OF MAN
• FREEDOM – to do or leave it undone without
coercion or constraint;

• it implies voluntariness which is to rationally

choose by deliberate will the object

• an idea of reason that serves an indispensable

practical function. Without the assumption of
freedom, reason cannot act.
• Freedom stands for something
greater than just the right to act

• it also stands for securing to everyone

an equal opportunity for life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
Four essential freedom
•Speech and expression

•Worship God

•Want

•Fear
• "God created man in his own image, in
the image of God he created him; male
and female he created them" (Gen 1:27).

• To this end man is called into existence

endowed with intellectual consciousness
and freedom.
• Man's capacity of intellectual knowledge radically
distinguishes him from the entire animal world;

• Intellectual knowledge makes man capable of

discernment, of distinguishing between truth and
non-truth;

• Through fields of science, of critical thought, and

of the methodical search for truth about reality.
• Man has within himself an essential relation to
truth which determines his character as a
transcendent being;

• The knowledge of the truth permeates the whole

sphere of the relationship of man with the world
and with other human person;

• It is the indispensable premise of every form of

culture.
• The freedom of the human will is joined to
intellectual knowledge and to the relation to
truth;

• The whole sphere of morality derives from this

that MAN is capable of choosing between good
and evil, sustained in this by the voice of
conscience, which impels him to good and
restrains him from evil.
• "Only in FREEDOM can man direct himself toward
goodness...man's dignity demands that he act according to a
knowing and free choice..." (GS 17).

• "For by his interior qualities he outstrips the whole sum of mere

things. He plunges into the depths of reality whenever he enters
into his own heart; God, who probes the heart, awaits him there;
there he discerns his proper destiny beneath the eyes of God" (GS
14).

• "Authentic freedom is an exceptional sign of the divine image

within man" (GS 17). True freedom is freedom in truth, inscribed
from the beginning in the reality of the "divine image."
HUMAN ACTS & ACTS OF MAN
• CONSCIENCE – spiritual discernment;
• The capacity to make practical judgement in matters
involving ethical issues;

• It is person’s most secret sanctuary where he/she is

alone with God;

• Hence the more a correct conscience prevails the

more do persons and groups turn aside from blind
choice and try to be guided by the objective
standards of moral conduct (SVC 1965)
• is experienced as an inner sanctuary or tribunal, rather than
something external, yet it mediates a universal and objective
moral law which is given rather than invented;

• summons us to seek good and avoid evil by loving God and

neighbor, by keeping the commandments and all universal
norms of morality;

• conscience must be properly formed and educated by ensuring

it is "dutifully conformed to the divine law and submissive
toward the Church's teaching office, which authentically
interprets that law in the light of the Gospel"; and

• -- freedom of conscience, especially in religious matters, must

be respected by civil authorities and people not be coerced into
any religious practice.
Acts of conscience
• Conscience-1 - as a voice or vicar or sanctuary of
God; presume a long tradition of reflection on
"the first principles of the natural law“; basic
principles of practical reason accessible to all
people of good will and right reason;

• Conscience-2 is the application of principles to

given circumstances "by practical discernment of
reasons and goods."
• Conscience-3 is our best judgment of
what to do or refrain from doing in the
here and now (or in the past) ;that is
when it can tell us to do what we might
otherwise be disinclined to do, or vice
versa, or give us cause for remorse.
Dignity of conscience
• that we must do our best to cultivate a well-
formed and well-informed conscience in
ourselves and those we influence;

• that we must take responsibility for our actions

and thus always seek seriously to discern what is
the right choice to make;

• that we should seek to resolve doubt rather than

act upon it;
• that we must follow the last and best judgment of our
conscience even if;

• that we must do so in all humility, aware that our choice

may be wrong and so be ready, if we later realize it is, to
repent and start afresh; and

• that we should avoid coercing people's consciences:

People should if possible be persuaded rather than
forced to live well and so be given a certain latitude.
Agony of conscience:
• Although they have tried to get adequate
information, still they do not have all the facts or the
clear understanding of values that they really need to
make an objectively correct decision;

• That even if they have acquired the best knowledge

available the best alternative may remain unclear,
because every alternative has advantage and
disadvantage
How to decide:
• A person’s conscience must be certain that for his or her,
here and now on the basis of the best information
practically available the best thing to do is A rather than
B;
• When in doubt if the course of action is ethical, one
should give benefit of the doubt to existing custom,
established and well-known laws or to their usual way of
thinking;
• This conservative presumption is based on the fact that
in human life what is customary and established at least
has the merit of long experience, reflection and survival.
Responsibility when making decisions
• To inform themselves as fully as practically possible
on both the facts and the ethical norms;

• To form a morally certain practical judgement of

conscience on the basis of this information;

• To act according to this well-formed conscience;

• To accept responsibility for their actions