Dictionary of Global Bioethics

Henk ten Have; Maria do Céu Patrão Neves

The International Association of Bioethics was established in 1992 at the initiative of three philosophers—Australians Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse and the American Dan Wikler. It gathers together a membership from various disciplines made up mainly of philosophers, physicians, and lawyers from 34 c... see more

WMA

Established in Paris in 1947 the World Medical Association is an association representing 112 national medical societies . First located in New York the WMA eventually moved its headquarters to Ferney-Voltaire in 1974. The official languages of the WMA are English, French, and Spanish. The organizat... see more

EGE

The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies is a neutral, independent, pluralist, and multidisciplinary body . It is composed of 15 experts tasked with advising the European Commission on ethical aspects of science and new technologies in connection with the preparation and implemen... see more

WTO

The World Trade Organization was established in 1995 and was the outcome of the Uruguay Development Round of trade negotiations replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade . The WTO is based in Geneva and consists of 164 member countries . The WTO is the global international organization de... see more

FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organization was founded in 1945 in Quebec . It has 194 member states with offices in 130 countries. Its headquarters were established in Rome in 1951 . The goals of the FAO are the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; the elimination of poverty; and the ... see more

UNESCO

The United Nations established the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1945 . It is a special agency within the United Nations that is headquartered in Paris . Since its foundation it has worked in four areas: education, culture, science, and communication. Establishe... see more

WHO

The United Nations established the World Health Organization in Geneva in 1948. It is a special agency within the United Nations that is focused on international public health . The objective of the WHO is the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health. According to its constit... see more

MSF

Médecins Sans Frontières was founded in 1971. A group of young physicians from France volunteered to provide humanitarian assistance by working with the Red Cross in the civil war in Biafra . Shocked by the cruelties of the war they wanted to speak up on behalf of the victims. Since the Red Cross ma... see more

ESPMH

The European Society for Philosophy and Medicine was established in 1987 by a group of philosophers, physicians, ethicists, and other professionals interested in ethics. They were especially motivated to reflect critically on the role of medicine and health in present-day societies. These concerns w... see more

IBC

The International Bioethics Committee was established in 1993 by Federico Mayor, the Director-General of UNESCO . It is a body of 36 independent experts appointed by the Director-General to provide him or her with the best possible advice. The experts represent a variety of disciplines including gen... see more

WIPO

The World Intellectual Property Organization was established in 1967 and is headquartered in Geneva . WIPO has 189 member states . The objectives of WIPO are to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among states and where appropriate in collaboratio... see more

IAEE

The International Association for Education in Ethics was established as a result of an initiative by UNESCO in March 2010 to bring together a group of experts to act as a preparatory group for the establishment of such an organization. The goal of this initiative was to promote the teaching of ethi... see more

ASBH

The American Society of Bioethics and Humanities was established in 1998 through a merger of three existing organizations in the United States: the Society for Health and Human Values , the Society for Bioethics Consultation, and the American Association of Bioethics. The oldest organization in the ... see more

SIBI

The International Society of Bioethics was founded in 1997 in Gijón . The aim of SIBI is to promote, support, disseminate, and consolidate knowledge about bioethics to attain its full application in a number of fields such as the medical, biological, environmental, and food science and technology fi... see more

Council of Europe/CoE

The Council of Europe is the oldest European organization still active and the continent’s leading human rights organization . It was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War in Strasbourg by 8 countries to promote human rights in Europe. Today it comprises 47 member states and 6 observer me... see more

HUGO

At the first meeting on genome mapping and sequencing that took place at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York in 1988 the initiative was taken to establish the Human Genome Organization . It was established as an international coordinating scientific body in the rapidly developing field of genomi... see more

CIOMS

The Council for International Organizations of Medical Science was established in 1949 in Brussels by the WHO and UNESCO . The two founding organizations were concerned with facilitating the exchange of views and scientific information in the medical sciences. They achieved this goal by securing con... see more

Potter

Van Rensselaer Potter is regarded the first to use the term “bioethics” in publications . Born in South Dakota in the United States Potter was educated in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After obtaining a Ph.D. in 1938 he received a postdoctoral fellowship and traveled to Sweden... see more

Hellegers

Andre Hellegers was the founder and first director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in the United States. Born in the Netherlands he studied medicine in Edinburgh . He specialized in fetal physiology in the United States. In 1967 he was appointed professor of obstetrics an... see more

Bankowski

Zbigniew Bankowski was a medical doctor and experimental pathologist born in Poland. From 1965 to 1975 he served as a staff member of the WHO in Switzerland where he was responsible for research coordination and the program for research training and grants. Subsequently, he was WHO representative in... see more

Pellegrino

Edmund Pellegrino is one of the founders of present-day philosophy of medicine and bioethics. Educated in medicine, especially renal medicine, he became the President of the Catholic University of America. In 1978 he took up a teaching post at Georgetown University where in 1983 he became the Direct... see more

Pardo

Arvid Pardo was the first Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations. He held the position from 1964 to 1971. In November 1967 he made a prophetic speech to the General Assembly claiming that ocean resources should be regarded as the common heritage of humanity. Arguing that the seabed ... see more

Jahr

Fritz Jahr was a Protestant pastor and teacher in the city of Halle an der Saale in central Germany. He studied theology, philosophy, music, and history. Jahr published 18 short papers between 1927 and 1934 most of which can be found in the journal Ethik: Sexual- und Gesellschafts-Ethik . In 1927 Ja... see more

TRIPS

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is an international legal agreement between members of the World Trade Organization and was enacted in 1995 . It covers all areas of intellectual property from copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, ... see more

CBD

The Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted during the Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro and signed by 150 governments. It entered into force in December 1993. As a convention it is an internationally binding treaty. The CBD affirms that the conservation of biological diversity is a comm... see more

DoH

The World Medical Association developed the Declaration of Helsinki . The Nuremberg Code was the first international framework of ethical principles for medical research . Shocked by the atrocities and human rights violations in Nazi Germany the code formulated such basic principles as the necessity... see more

UDHGHR

The Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights was adopted by acclamation by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1997. One year later it was endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It is the first normative instrument elaborated and adopted by UNESCO. It also... see more

Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

The Rio Declaration adopted in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development is widely known as the Earth Summit. The conference in Rio de Janeiro was a follow-up to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment that took place in Stockholm in 1972. The Earth Summit w... see more

Earth Charter

In 2000 an international group of organizations and individuals adopted the Earth Charter at the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris. The charter is a declaration of principles for a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society. At the initiative of personalities such as Maurice Strong and Mikhail Gor... see more

Oviedo Convention

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine was prepared by the Committee of Experts on Bioethics/CAHBI and issued by the Council of Europe . It is known as the Ovi... see more

UDHR

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in December 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly. At that time the United Nations had 58 member states of which 48 members voted in favor of the declaration, 8 abstained, and 2 did not vote. The declaration is regarded as a milestone in th... see more

Doha Declaration

The Doha Declaration was adopted in 2001 by members of the World Trade Organization as a result of negotiations about the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights . The main criticism of TRIPS was that by exclusively prioritizing trade important public health and environmen... see more

UDBHR

The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights was unanimously adopted by the member states of UNESCO in October 2005. It is the first international document in the field of bioethics adopted by all governments and as such marks the emergence of global bioethics. Member states entrust the o... see more

Nuremberg Code

Following the end of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors after the Second World War in 1947 judges adopted the Nuremberg Code. This so-called doctors’ trial proceeded over the course of 2 years and resulted in the condemnation of German physicians involved in experiments in concentration camps. Of ... see more

Civil Society

Civil society considers society as a community of citizens connected by common interests and collective activities.

Pain

Pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage. Pain in healthcare is often regarded as a symptom of an underlying condition, a signal from... see more

Engineering Ethics

Engineering ethics refers to that branch of applied ethics that examines the actions of and decisions taken by engineers. It emerged as a special field of ethics in the 1980s and focuses on professional ethics in which the responsibilities and duties of engineers, which are often formulated in codes... see more

Death, Concept

The concept of death has been defined as following one of two ways. The first, simpler, and universal definition of death is by the via negativa in which life is negated or denied.

Honor Codes

Honor codes are used to tell people how to conduct themselves appropriately in specific settings.

Public Health

Public health is defined by the WHO as the science and art of promoting health, preventing disease, and prolonging life through organized efforts made by society.

Advocacy

Advocacy means taking action on behalf of other people. Healthcare professionals are used to doing just that. An example is the pediatrician who discovered lead poisoning in drinking water in the city of Flint in Michigan and went to the press when the authorities did not undertake any remedial acti... see more

Cosmopolitanism

The development of global bioethics has been inspired by the ideals of cosmopolitanism. Such ideals have often been expressed in history . They consider each human being as a citizen of his or her own community or state and at the same time as a citizen of the world .

Circumcision, Male

Male circumcision like female circumcision has a long history and is a common practice in Jewish and Islamic religion.

Medical Humanities

Medical humanities is a field of study and teaching in medicine that includes the humanities , social science , and the arts and their application to medical education and practice. Although it is an interdisciplinary field that is particularly important for medical education, it is related to the i... see more

Discourse Ethics

Discourse ethics refers to a contemporary philosophical perspective and specifically to moral theory that advocates the only way to live peacefully and have fair rules is to get all people potentially affected to engage in reasonable argumentation, while acknowledging the moral pluralism of our soci... see more

Health Policy

Concerns about health have existed throughout human history. Healthcare was planned and organized long before the term “health policy” came to be used.

Law and Morality

Law and morals are two normative discourses of human action well established since ancient times. The Greek tragedy Antigone by Sophocles in the 5th century BC narrates Antigone’s dilemma between obeying her king and a royal edict or following her own conscience and complying with what was commonly ... see more

Integrity Concept

The word “integrity” derives etymologically from the Latin integritas . The adjectival form of integrity is integer and thus expresses a specifically moral sense of purity, innocence, honesty, and probity.

Committees, General

Ethical committees are multidisciplinary, pluralist, and independent bodies that most commonly have an advisory function and work in the biomedical setting.

Values

Values refer to the importance, worth, or usefulness of something and are the criteria used to evaluate such a reality. There are so many kinds of values ranging from religious, cultural, esthetic, economic, moral, political, transcultural through to environmental that there is a science dedicated t... see more

FGC

Female genital cutting is a common traditional practice in many countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Children and Ethics

Since children are vulnerable they are given special attention in bioethical discourse.

Agricultural Ethics

Agricultural ethics is the area of practical ethics that examines agriculture. Although it is part of the wider area of food ethics, it concentrates on how food is produced. Agriculture is regarded as a major step in civilization that took place 10,000 years ago. It led to human settlement, the foun... see more

Organizational Ethics

The area of applied ethics examining the ethics of organizations is called organizational ethics. It studies the operating structure of organizations and their ethical behavior. The way organizations are organized influences relationships within the organization and the relationships or behavior the... see more

Life, Sanctity of

Sanctity of life refers to the inviolable character of life. The word “sanctity” has an inescapable religious connotation that conveys the historical/philosophical context of its use in bioethics. The protection of life when viewed from the perspective of biotechnologies being increasingly used to m... see more

Global Compact

The UN Global Compact is a voluntary initiative launched in 2000 to bring businesses and civil society together on the basis of 10 principles relating to human rights, labor, the environment, and anticorruption.

Right to Health

The right to health refers to everyone enjoying the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This right is not new in that it was already mentioned as a fundamental right in the constitution of the WHO in 1946. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights also mentioned health as... see more

Ableism

Ableism refers to individual discrimination or social prejudice against people with physical, intellectual, or psychiatric disabilities. It is based on a concept of normality that dictates the superiority of those who comply with this standard in relation to others who are disabled and do not comply... see more

Indigenous Rights

As a result of the importance of indigenous knowledge for biodiversity and healthcare and the many examples of exploitation such as biopiracy and unjust patenting, the United Nations in 2007 adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The document states that such peoples have “the ... see more

Donation, General

The word “donation” derives etymologically from the Latin donatio . It refers to giving something gratuitously and freely to help someone else. In addition to it being a generous act, it often has some sort of interest, or feelings attached to it involving someone close to the donor.

Solidarity

The word “solidarity” derives etymologically from the Latin solidus and refers to an entire three-dimensional body that is both consistent and sound.

Donation, Body

Demand for human corpses is as old as human curiosity to understand how the human body works. Mainly since the Renaissance and the beginning of practice-based knowledge and experimentalism, schools of medicine and scientists needed corpses that they would get from hospitals and the streets where des... see more

Chronic Illness and Care

Although chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma have always existed, they have become a major challenge for contemporary healthcare systems.

Quality of Life

Quality of life has become a common factor in discussions today about healthcare and bioethics.

Communitarian Ethics

Communitarian ethics focuses on the importance of the community and emphasizes the influence community has on human beings.

Birth Control

Birth control is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy.

Animal Rights

The Animal Rights Movement advocates that animals as subjects of a life also have interests that can only be adequately protected if they are considered as rights. Animals are then also said to be subjects of rights. The claim that animals have rights is quite recent. It was introduced, developed, a... see more

Disasters

Globalization has amplified global vulnerability in that it calls for the sympathy, solidarity, and generosity of people worldwide. This has become clear in the increasing occurrence of disasters. Definitions and classifications of disasters differ.

Non-governmental Organizations

A non-governmental organization is a voluntary association of individuals or groups that is legally constituted, registered with a central government, cooperates with governments, and dedicated to social causes such as human rights, health, education, environment, culture, and religion. Although NGO... see more

Autonomy

The word “autonomy” derives etymologically from two Greek words auto and nomos . Thus it literally means self-government. Autonomy at the social level refers to the laws people establish to regulate themselves and at the individual level it refers to living by one’s own laws . The ideal of liberty o... see more

Genetic Modification , Food

Food production is the most relevant reason to genetically modify organisms. Genetic modification first started with vegetables in 1994.

Deontology, Moral Theory

The word “deontology” derives etymologically from the Greek deon and logos and hence refers to the study of duties.

Committees, Research Ethics Committees

Research ethics committees have been established in a wide range of institutions where clinical research is conducted such as hospitals, research centers, and universities.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology has a long history as borne out by microorganisms being used in the production of beer, yogurt, and cheese and by humans domesticating animals and selectively improving crops. However, modern biotechnology is different in that it uses new scientific methods such as genetic engineering,... see more

Vivisection

Vivisection refers to the practice of carrying out operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research. When vivisection is carried out on humans it is regarded today as torture. Animal experiments have long been used in the history of medicine and have been justifie... see more

Lifestyles

Lifestyles refer to the way people choose to live and how their behavior and what they do affect individual and public health. Lifestyles consist of a wide range of individual activities from jobs and hobbies, diets and sports, to relaxation and fun. The relationship between lifestyle and health is ... see more

Ecocentrism

The word “ecocentrism” derives etymologically from the Greek oikos and kentron . It is a perspective that considers planet Earth as the house in which all creatures dwell.

Epidemics

Infectious diseases can be endemic, epidemic, or pandemic. An epidemic is the rapid spread of an infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time .

Cloning, Animal

Animal cloning spontaneously happens in nature via various means. Such cloning commonly refers to the artificial production of animals that are genetically identical to the progenitor.

Clinical Equipoise

A central concept in the ethics of medical research is clinical equipoise.

Cryogenics

The word “cryogenics” derives etymologically from the Greek words kryos and gene .

Moral Expertise

Moral expertise is a concept that questions whether experts specializing in moral theory in public policy debates add any value and whether professionalizing so-called moral experts in specific social sectors such as biomedical ethics has any relevance. In addition to these two questions an issue ha... see more

Life, Extension

Life extension refers to increasing the longevity and life expectancy of humans and to the processes used to prolong the lifespan . Human life expectancy has significantly increased in the last century in Western countries mostly as a result of the discovery of antibiotics and vaccines.

Animal Research

The use of animals in scientific research appears to be almost as old as the beginning of medicine. For example, vivisection is already reported in the Corpus Hippocraticum and by Galen . The use of animals was strongly revived in the Renaissance. In the 19th century Claude Bernard advocated animal ... see more

Abortion

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy and results in the death of the embryo or fetus. Termination can be spontaneous or artificial. Spontaneous abortion is called “miscarriage.” Deliberate termination of a pregnancy that would normally result in a live birth is morally problematic. Such an abo... see more

Euthanasia, Passive

Passive euthanasia commonly refers to letting someone die naturally. Although death may be avoidable in the short term and clinically postponed at the cost of lengthening the time the patient suffers, passive euthanasia refers to doing nothing to prevent imminent death and to allowing nature to take... see more

Cloning, Food

Food cloning refers to those goods created via cloning and used for nourishment.

Respect for Autonomy

Respect for autonomy is a principle of bioethics that acknowledges individual autonomy and the duty to respect, comply, and act accordingly with it.

Strikes

Strikes refer to a collective form of protest that is used when employers or governments impose a condition or a set of conditions on workers or populations, respectively, that are felt to be unfair and unjust. They usually involve the withdrawal of labor or a refusal to work and are organized by a ... see more

Malaria

Malaria is caused by parasites transmitted to human beings through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. There are more than 400 different species of mosquito. Malaria is a life-threatening disease that mainly affects less developed countries. Unfortunately, this is probably the reason ... see more

Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies refer to the most recent and most impactful technologies of our time. The context of emerging technologies is that of development that is increasingly guided by technological innovation and by development that is at its most fundamental level enhanced by the convergence of diff... see more

Geneticization

Geneticization refers to the sociocultural process of interpreting and explaining human behavior using the terminology and concepts of genetics such that all social interactions relating to such behavior are viewed through the prism of biomolecular technology—not just health and disease.

Medical Tourism

One of the consequences of globalization is mobility as clearly demonstrated in the field of healthcare with health professionals migrating from developing countries to the developed world. Furthermore, patients from developed countries are increasingly seeking medical treatment in developing countr... see more

Genetic Modification , Human Beings

Advances in genetic modification techniques have opened up the possibility of applying them to human beings. Modification of the human genome can be done at the somatic level and the germline level .

Mental Health

The concept of health can be approached from a naturalistic or a normativistic position. Naturalistic perspectives articulate that health is objective, empirical, value free, and observable in the natural world. An example is the biostatistical theory of Christopher Boorse that argues health is the ... see more

Donation, Tissues and Body Parts

Transplantation medicine depends on human beings donating tissues such as corneas, skin, tendons, ligaments, heart valves and other cardiovascular tissues, bone, blood vessels, and connective tissues.

Paternalism

The word “paternalism” derives etymologically from the Latin paternus . It designates a doctrine or theory that allows interfering with someone’s autonomy when trying to promote his or her well-being or to prevent him or her from coming to harm .

Privacy

Privacy refers to the right to keep confidential, secret, or private anything that concerns someone’s own private life.

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the branch of medicine that studies the distribution, patterns, and determinants of health-related conditions and the control of disease. It plays a major part in public health.

Disease Mongering

Disease mongering refers to the unnecessary widening of diagnostic boundaries of illness for economic benefit. It has been regarded as “the selling of sickness” in which the concept of disease is stretched such that a larger market for treatments is created. In everyday life there is often no clear ... see more

Animal Cloning

Cloning in the animal world is achieved naturally in several ways. Asexual reproduction is when an organism creates a copy of itself without any contribution of genetic material from another individual. It is the most elementary form of animal cloning and happens in nature through fragmentation , ge... see more

Artificial Organs

Artificial organs refer to all engineered devices or tissues both external and internal to the human body. Such devices are the product of biotechnologies aimed at restoring functions that for different causes are failing, deficient, or missing. Although the idea of a mechanical device to substitute... see more

Resuscitation

Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation is often shortened to “resuscitation” and refers to emergency procedures to maintain circulation when the heart has stopped beating and the lungs are struggling to work. It is often enough to restart the heart by applying chest compressions and to restore lung function... see more

Hunger

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2019 some 842 million people were suffering chronic hunger, did not have enough food to conduct an active life, and lived by and large in developing regions

Chimera

The Chimera was a fabulous creature in Greek mythology that had a lion’s head, a goat’s body, a dragon’s tail, and breathed fire.

Environmentalism

Environmentalism refers broadly to a wide variety of environmental doctrines ranging from the more radical deep ecology to a more conventional environmental sustainability .

Intensive Care

The intensive treatment and close monitoring of seriously ill patients is called intensive care. It requires highly trained professionals, sophisticated technology and monitoring equipment, and specialist hospital wards called intensive care units or critical care units .

Coercion

Coercion is the practice of obliging someone else to act in an involuntary manner by the use of threats or force. Its aim is to control the will or behavior of another person.

Capital Punishment

Capital punishment refers to the death penalty. Both expressions are synonymous despite focusing on different aspects. The former stresses the notion of punishment ; the latter stresses the nature of the punishment . Both expressions designate the execution of an offender who has been found guilty b... see more

Marginalization

Treating a person or group as insignificant, powerless, or unimportant is regarded as marginalization. It is a social phenomenon in which individuals and groups are excluded, their needs are ignored, and they are not allowed a voice. Marginalization can occur as a result of someone’s nationality, ra... see more

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism refers to a philosophical theory that is particularly important in sociopolitical and moral thought and is characterized by the primacy of the consequentialist principle of utility in which good and bad are determined, respectively, by the degree of happiness or unhappiness they produ... see more

Xenotransplantation

The prefix “xeno” derives etymologically from the Greek xeno . Xenotransplantation refers to the transplantation of cells, tissues, or organs between different species such as from animals to humans. Xenotransplantation first began in the early 1900s when animals such as pigs, goats, lambs, and monk... see more

Emergency Medicine

Emergency medicine is a medical specialty defined by the International Federation for Emergency Medicine in 1991 as “a field of practice based on the knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury affecting patients of all... see more

Equality

The word “equality” derives etymologically from the Latin aequalis, aequalitas .

Death, General

Although death is an objective phenomenon and biologically defined, it has been subjectively interpreted throughout time and the world mostly from a spiritual perspective.

Contraception

Contraception refers to all natural or artificial processes employed to avoid pregnancy. It is said to be as old as humankind.

Social Media

Social media refers to the means people can use to interact online and share digital contents with one another.

Vaccination

Vaccination refers to injecting someone with a microbe that has been killed or weakened to stimulate the immune system against the microbe, to produce immunity against a disease, and to prevent disease . A healthy immune system recognizes invading bacteria and viruses and produces antibodies to dest... see more

Legal Ethics

Legal ethics refers to ethical standards or behavior considered right, appropriate, and desirable for judges and lawyers in the legal profession to practice their trade. Such ethical standards are presented in a code of ethics or a code of conduct that enumerates the rights of professionals and thei... see more

Exploitation

Exploitation is a word that crops up in many bioethical debates such as those dealing with commercial surrogate motherhood, selling of organs, non-therapeutic medical experiments on prisoners, experiments on cancer patients hoping for cures, and clinical research in developing countries.

Commons

Commons are shared domains, materials, products, resources, and services. They are oriented toward the future unlike the notion of common heritage that refers to the past and to historical traditions.

Psychosurgery

Psychosurgery refers to neurosurgical procedures to alter the thoughts, emotions, personality, or behavior of people.

Bioinvasion

Bioinvasion has been regarded as a major threat to biodiversity especially since the 1990s. Bioinvasion is the introduction and spread of non-native species outside their natural past or present ranges that causes the extinction of native species and changes existing ecosystems such that ecosystem s... see more

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence refers to the replication of human intelligence by a computer system such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making . The remote antecedents of AI go back to the 17th century and to Thomas Hobbes’ mechanics perspective of human intelligence as a combinatio... see more

Designer Babies

The children of parents who wish to design their offspring are called “designer babies.” The term was coined by the media to refer to genetic interventions in preimplantation human embryos in which the aim was to select or alter the traits future children would have.

Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics refers to a theoretical model of ethics that emphasizes the central role virtues play in moral life. Virtues are dispositions people have to act in a specific way. Although they do not express obligations, they are presented as highly beneficial to self-flourishment and achievement of ... see more

Cloning, Concept

The word “cloning” derives etymologically from the Greek klon .

Genetic Modification , Plants

Plants have long been genetically modified via traditional crop techniques or via selection by humans with the aim of increasing the production of naturally occurring variations of plants that show desirable traits .

Palliative Care

Palliative care was defined by the WHO in 1990 as “the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment.” A broader and now commonly used definition is the one proposed by the WHO in 2002: “Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patient... see more

Ethics

The word “ethics” derives etymologically from the Greek ethos. However, in Ancient Greece ethos had two spellings: êthos in which the first vowel was long was used by pre-classical authors such as Homer to mean a shelter for animals; and éthos in which the first vowel was short was used by Aristotle... see more

Neuroethics

Neuroethics is a new interdisciplinary field that studies the ethics of recording, monitoring, and intervening in the human brain. The term was first used by Jean-Pierre Changeux in the 1990s. It combines knowledge from clinical brain sciences, psychology, law, and moral philosophy. While neuroscien... see more

Traditional Medicine

According to the WHO traditional medicine can be defined as the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement, or treatment of physical and... see more

Hospice

Hospices are places usually outside the hospital context where palliative care is provided. In 1967 Cecily Saunders established St Christopher’s Hospice in the United Kingdom as the first specialized facility for care of the terminally ill.

Moral Hazard

The concept of moral hazard refers to a situation in which someone profits from taking risks that will affect other people, does not personally suffer from taking such risks, and has little if any incentive to guard against risks. In such a situation people tend to continue to do what benefits them ... see more

Biopolitics

Biopolitics is a neologism consisting of the Greek words bios and politikos . It refers today to the organization and administration of people and public life, of nations and states, and of common goods. Etymologically, biopolitics refers to the political power applied to life either in its natural ... see more

Integrity, Research

Research integrity refers to sets of ethical principles that must be respected such that good scientific practice and sound and trustworthy science can be assured. Historically, awareness of the importance of research integrity only developed as a consequence of scandals in the scientific community.

Contract Research Organizations

Contract research organizations are a relatively new phenomenon in the field of medical research. They can be companies that contract with the pharmaceutical industry or can be biotechnology enterprises that want to outsource research. Ever more clinical trials are relocated to developing countries.

Bioethics, Medical

Bioethics emerged as a new discipline in the 1970s. The term “bioethics” was coined by Potter. Although the same term was also used by the founders of a new institute at Georgetown University in the United States, Potter intended the new discipline to have a broad scope including not only medical bu... see more

Health, Social Determinants Of

The report of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health states that human health is determined more by the conditions under which daily life is lived than by medical treatment and healthcare services.

Deliberation

The word “deliberation” derives etymologically from the Latin librare and the prefix de .

Communitarianism

Communitarianism is a theoretical perspective that proposes shifting the liberal focus on individual rights toward communal responsibilities.

Prisoners

As a result of being deprived of their liberty and sometimes being the focus of medical research, prisoners are regarded as a vulnerable population.

Transhumanism

Transhumanism refers to a philosophical movement that believes the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations such as ageing, susceptibility to disease, and proneness to disabilities by means of science and technology. It also calls for strong investment in new biotechn... see more

Committees, National Ethics Committees

The establishment of national ethics committees started in the 1970s as a result of political initiatives and in recognition of the need for an ethical approach to address very complex problems raised by significant biomedical developments, biotechnological innovations, and their application to huma... see more

Brain Drain

One of the phenomena brought about by globalization is the brain drain, which entails skilled health professionals from developing countries moving to the developed world.

Research Ethics, Data Sharing

The sharing of research data has long been an aim of institutions and publishers and has led to the development of new models of scientific research called data-sharing policies based on the ethical obligation to make data freely available or as unrestricted as possible.

Standards of Care

Standards of care are used to define appropriate treatments and preventive activities in clinical healthcare irrespective of whether they are new or established. They are usually determined by the medical profession and promulgated through guidelines based on scientific evidence.

Declaration of Istanbul

Basic social and economic needs that are not met can result in health problems that cannot be addressed without the involvement of civil society. Although healthcare services are not discrete interventions in themselves, they demand a systemic approach guided by local knowledge. The Declaration of I... see more

Epigenetics

The word “epigenetics” was first used by the geneticist Conrad Hal Waddington in 1942. Use of the Greek prefix epi allowed epigenetics to present itself as a new science as going beyond and above, coming after, and revising and complementing knowledge garnered from genetics.

Nature versus Nurture

An ancient debate in philosophy, psychology, and science is whether human behavior is primarily determined by biological or environmental factors. The idea that the human constitution is primarily determined by nature dates back to Hippocratic writings that argued human behavior is determined by bod... see more

Abuse, Child

Children have been regarded for a long time as the property of their parents, especially the father. In all cultures parents are responsible for their children and take decisions in their best interests. The adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child in 1989 was a turning po... see more

Leadership

A leader is someone who leads or commands a group, organization, or country. There are many ways to define leadership but the principal one is the capacity to translate vision into reality. Such a definition refers to certain qualities that are characteristic of leadership such as establishing a cle... see more

Deep Ecology

Deep ecology refers to a radical environmental movement that emerged in the mid-1970s.

Biopiracy

Bioprospecting has long been commonly carried out without any concern for benefit sharing with source countries and indigenous populations. From the perspective of developing countries and environmental NGOs it is a kind of theft in which resource extraction is unfair much as it had been in earlier ... see more

Ebola

Ebola is a deadly disease caused by a virus. Ebola virus disease starts with a fever, sore throat, muscular pain, and headaches and is then followed by vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes.

Pre-approval Access

Access to investigational medicines prior to approval is called “pre-approval access” .

Vegetarianism

Vegetarianism refers to the practice of voluntarily abstaining from eating animal flesh. Such a practice can be broken down into a number of categories such as semi-vegetarianism or flexitarianism ; vegetarianism strictu sensu ; and pure vegetarianism or veganism .

Moral Diversity

Moral diversity is an empirical reality in democratic societies where all people are free to have their own beliefs, values, and principles. Such diversity has its roots in different religions, cultures, ideologies, and upbringings. Although moral diversity has been said to lead to divisiveness and ... see more

Neonatology

Neonatology is a specialized field of medicine focused on the care and treatment of newborn babies and is considered a subspecialty of pediatrics in most countries. Patients include preterm babies born prematurely, term babies with serious conditions acquired during pregnancy or labor, and babies wi... see more

Spirituality

The word “spirituality” derives etymologically from the Latin spiritus .

Community Consent

In medical practice and research the principle of individual prior informed consent has a crucial role to play. However, the emphasis on individuals is not the same across the world. Communities in many cultures and traditions play an important role in determining human well-being and in individuals... see more

Humanitarian Intervention

Humanitarian intervention refers to organizations or states taking action to alleviate human suffering within the borders of a sovereign state.

Compassionate Use

Compassionate use is the same as pre-approval access and the right to try both of which refer to access to medication that is not yet approved for use in medical practice.

Electronic Surveillance

The word “surveillance” derives etymologically from the French verb surveiller . Electronic technologies have allowed surveillance to be carried out from a distance.

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology refers to the discipline that combines biology and engineering to design and fabricate biological devices, systems, and components that do not currently exist in the natural world such as green chemicals for agricultural waste, new vaccines synthesized in the laboratory, and engine... see more

Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

Nutrition and hydration are vital for all living beings including of course human beings. The lack of adequate nutrition and hydration quantitatively or qualitatively leads inevitably to death. In recent decades there has been a growing number of situations in which patients as a result of their spe... see more

Business Ethics

Business ethics is the branch of applied ethics that studies the ethical principles and problems that emerge in businesses. It applies to the conduct of individuals as well as organizations.

Genetic Modification , General

Genetically modified organisms are those whose genetic material has been altered via genetic engineering such as molecular cloning, recombinant DNA technology, gene delivery in which the three Ts are used to introduce foreign DNA, and gene editing. Organisms have been genetically altered throughout ... see more

Fetal Research

Research using living fetuses inside or outside the uterus is called fetal research. It also includes research using embryos .

Anthropocentrism

The word “anthropocentrism” derives etymologically from the Greek words anthropos and kentron and is used to classify systems or perspectives centered on the human, on humankind. The Greek suffix -ismós expresses the general scope of the word to which it is added. Thus anthropocentrism refers to the... see more

Gender

The WHO describes gender as the socially constructed characteristics of women and men such as norms, roles, and relationships between women and men. While a person’s sex is a biological fact, the characteristics of masculinity and femininity depend on the context in which specific roles and identiti... see more

Dementia

Dementia is characterized by chronic and progressive decline in mental ability. It is not a specific disease but refers to a group of conditions affecting memory, communication, language, ability to focus and pay attention, reasoning, judgment, and visual perception.

Suicide

In September 2019 the WHO reported that someone commits suicide every 40 s somewhere in the world and that 800,000 people end their lives each year. For young people aged between 15 and 29 suicide is the second commonest cause of death after traffic accidents. Suicide is defined as the action of kil... see more

Pandemics

A pandemic is an outbreak of disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects an exceptionally high proportion of the population. The WHO defines it as the worldwide spread of a new disease such as avian flu , swine flu , and coronavirus . The term epidemic is used to refer to a sudden in... see more

Artificial Insemination

Artificial insemination is an assisted reproductive technology consisting in the artificial retrieval of sperm via masturbation, treatment and selection , and insertion of sperm directly into the woman’s cervix . It is also called intrauterine insemination . Matters then proceed naturally with the s... see more

Organ Transplantation

See for this entry under Transplantation medicine

Fertility Preservation

Fertility preservation refers to a new reality in which individuals can retain the ability to reproduce even after losing their natural reproductive function as a result of specific clinical treatments.

Future Generations

Future generations is the term used to refer to the next and subsequent generations of humans. Whatever context it is used in it acknowledges that those who do not yet exist matter today and that present generations who are now living have an obligation to think and act not only for themselves, but ... see more

Justice, Theories

Justice is one of the three basic principles of bioethics as formulated in the Belmont Report next to beneficence and respect for persons. Beauchamp and Childress’s Principles of Biomedical Ethics promulgated justice as one of four principles on which the emerging field of bioethics should be based.

Climate Change

Climate change is the most fundamental global challenge facing the world today.

Social Work

The International Federation of Social Workers defines social work as “a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people.”

Law and Bioethics

Although law and bioethics have been related since the birth of the latter, the way in which they correlate does not always follow the same direction in terms of the nationally adopted legal systems.

Responsibility, Concept

The word “responsibility” derives etymologically from the Latin respondere . Although responsibility is commonly conceived today as similar to accountability and liability, it is different.

Freedom, General

Freedom is a fundamental concept at the moral level and at the legal and political levels. It is more frequently defined via negativa than via positiva .

Nanomedicine

Although nanotechnology has been used in many different fields with remarkable success, it is particularly useful in medicine where it is applied to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. Therefore it is justifiably considered either a field of nanotechnology or a branch of medicine concerned... see more

Refugees

More than 44,000 people are forcibly displaced each day because of war, violence, and persecution.

Open Access

Open access refers to making academic and scientific work such as papers, journals, conference communications, technical reports, and theses freely available on the internet. The main objective is to make research results accessible to the entire scientific community. Were it not for open access, re... see more

Whistle-Blowing

Whistle-blowing refers to someone perceiving something as wrong within an organization and communicating that information to actors outside the organization . A recent example is the case of Edward Snowden who in 2013 leaked classified information from the National Security Agency in the United Stat... see more

Clone

The word “clone” derives etymologically from the Greek klon and was first coined in 1903 by the plant physiologist Herbert J. Webber to designate the technique of propagating new plants using cuttings, bulbs, or buds.

Advance Directive

Advance directives are written documents that specify the medical preferences of competent people. They are prepared to provide instructions for future treatment in case such people become incompetent. There are two types of advance directives: living wills that specify the preferred treatment optio... see more

Responsibility, Individual

Individual or personal responsibility refers to the duty everyone has to answer for what they should or should not do and for what they do or do not do. People are responsible legally and morally for their actions and their omissions . In fact, omissions can lead to legal prosecution such as when an... see more

Demography

Demography is the statistical study of populations. It studies how human populations change through three demographic processes: birth, migration, and ageing .

Publication Ethics

Publication ethics refers to the ethical standards that apply to the publication of scholarly work aiming to promote the highest quality of scientific work and to guarantee genuine authorship.

Journalism Ethics

Journalism ethics refers to ethical standards or behavior considered right, appropriate, and desirable by codes of ethics for journalism to be practiced. Ethical requirements for journalism were seen as necessary as the profession gained power in democratic societies. True journalism does not exist ... see more

Casuistry

Casuistry is derived from the Latin word causa and refers, in general, to a case-based method of reasoning. It is employed in many fields and in law .

Donation, Organs

Organ donation refers to individuals gifting their own organs for transplantation to save the life of another person. It is perhaps the most praiseworthy way of donating biological material since it is more than an act of donation in that it provides the gift of life and often entails an invasive pr... see more

Euthanasia, General

Euthanasia is one of the most challenging issues in bioethics. Although it has been open to debate both before and since the advent of bioethics, it remains controversial and arguably one of the most important topics of bioethics.

Disease

Although disease is a crucial concept in healthcare, it is not only difficult to define but also varies according to history and cultural and social context. Diseases of course are as old as humanity and human beings have always had to face them. The concept of disease plays an important part in det... see more

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is the practice of hiring an outside party to produce goods or provide services that used to be produced or provided by the company involved. It is usually done to reduce the costs of labor. Outsourcing can be done by domestic companies as well as foreign ones. If a specific function is ... see more

Responsibility, Social

Social responsibility refers to the duty of everyone—be they individuals or collectives —to answer for what they do, should or should not do, and do not do but should do toward the society to which they belong. All social entities owe their existence to society and provide society with the services ... see more

Occupational Safety

The focus of occupational safety is safe and healthy working conditions. Work can expose people to risks such as dangerous substances, radiation, infectious diseases, and accidents. Since 1950 the International Labour Organization and the WHO have been running a joint program to promote occupational... see more

Family Planning

Family planning refers to taking control over pregnancy involving contraception and reproductive technologies in an attempt to help parents decide how many children to have and when to have them .

Triage

Triage refers to selecting people for treatment from a larger group of people all of whom are in need of treatment. Triage is used when events such as war, terrorist attacks, or disasters cause so many casualties that healthcare resources are too limited to treat everyone. The word “triage” derives ... see more

Consequentialism

Consequentialism refers to a specific orientation in moral philosophy: a result-based perspective that evaluates the morality of an action according to the results it produces.

Suffering

Suffering refers to the pain or anguish someone is undergoing. Since pain is objective and suffering is subjective, suffering is not the same for everyone even though the cause may be the same and thus can be unpredictable. Although suffering is triggered by an external event, its reality is interio... see more

Professionalism

Professionalism refers to complying with the goals and procedures established for a profession and responding to social needs, interests, and expectations .

Ubuntu Ethics

Ubuntu refers to a value system traditionally used in certain parts of Africa, comes from the Nguni Bantu word meaning “the quality of being human” or “humanity,” and entails values such as respect for others, helpfulness, community, sharing, caring, trust, and unselfishness. Ubuntu is an ethical sy... see more

Access to Medication

Almost 2 billion people have no access to basic medicines and hence do not benefit from the advances of medical science. Lack of access to medication is a complex problem. Although affordability is an important determinant, deficient infrastructures play major roles. Drugs need to be safe and of goo... see more

Bioethics, History

Bioethics emerged as a new discipline in the 1970s and as a result put the traditional concept of medical ethics under pressure because of three factors. One was increasing criticism of paternalism of the medical professional. The second was the growing power of science and technology that placed mo... see more

Health Education and Promotion

Health education and promotion is part and parcel of public health. Its importance was emphasized in the Declaration of Alma Ata sponsored by the WHO in 1978.

Death Penalty

See Capital punishment

Consent, Informed Consent

Informed consent refers to patients and research participants genuinely consenting to undergo treatments and tests and to participate in research.

Patient Rights

The claim to patient rights first arose when the human rights movement and the humanization of healthcare movement converged. Patient rights have been used to establish the principles and rules for the ethical relationship between the patient and the healthcare professional and between the healthcar... see more

Precision Medicine

Precision medicine refers to medicine that is accurate . It is an innovative approach to patient care based on the genetic or molecular profile or on the individual characteristics of patients or groups of patients such as ethnic groups who are more susceptible to a particular disease and do not fre... see more

Patenting

A patent is a license conferring a right on someone or some other party for a set period of time that prevents others from making, using, or selling an invention. In other words, it is a form of intellectual property giving exclusive control and possession to a particular individual or party and pre... see more

Biodiversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity defines biodiversity as variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part. This includes diversity within species, between species, and of ecosyste... see more

Violence

Violence refers to behavior in which physical force is deliberately used to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. It has always been a pervasive part of human life. The WHO has been closely looking at violence and health since 2002 and defines violence as: “The intentional use of physical forc... see more

Clinical Ethics, Professionalization

Much as is the case with all professions, the professionalization of clinical ethics is a response to a social need demanded by the current predominant healthcare model.

Safety

Safety refers to the condition in which someone is protected from harm, danger, risk, or injury.

Psychiatry Ethics

Psychiatric ethics is a branch of applied ethics that examines the actions and decisions of psychiatrists.

Dual Use

Dual use refers to biotechnological products, vaccines, and microorganisms that can be used for both beneficial and hostile purposes. Although biotechnology is in principle a peaceful technology, today it is a potential source of risks for human security.

Committees, Clinical Ethics Committees

Clinical ethics committees are established at healthcare facilities. They work in the clinical setting assisting staff, patients, and families.

Behavior Modification

Behavior modification comprises those procedures aimed at changing behavior patterns. Another term is behavior therapy. It has been promoted since the 1970s by the school of behaviorism, especially by John Watson and B.F. Skinner. They argued that the usual approaches of psychology with their emphas... see more

Malpractice

Malpractice is professional negligence and applies to professional practices such as medicine, law, and finance. In such practices it is assumed that standards of care, competence, and skills are met by every professional. When a patient is injured because of a negligent act or failure to act by a h... see more

Children’s Rights

The Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the United Nations in 1989.

Substance Abuse

Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of addictive substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. Using psychoactive substances can lead to dependence syndrome, which presents as a cluster of cognitive, physiological, and psychological symptoms that develop after repeated u... see more

Placebo

The word “placebo” derives etymologically from the Latin placere . It has been used in medicine since the eighteenth century to refer to a substance originally sugar or flour tablets or just saline given more to please than to benefit the patient.

Moral Universalism

Moral universalism refers to the idea of a moral truth and a single pattern of action acknowledged as good or right by all and applied to all. It dominated moral history until the nineteenth century when the moral universals it founded lost their consistency as a result of the decline of metaphysics... see more

Drugs

Drugs are chemicals that affect the body and the brain. The term is generally used for medicines such as pharmaceuticals. More specifically, the term refers to illicit substances that lead to abuse and addiction. Although four main types of drugs can be distinguished such as stimulants , depressants... see more

Codes of Conduct

Codes of conduct are sets of rules, values, and virtues that regulate social and professional activities.

Biometrics

Biometrics is the measurement of the physical and behavioral characteristics of people. The assumption is that every person can be identified on the basis of his or her physical and behavioral characteristics such that each individual can be authenticated. Biometrics technology is therefore used to ... see more

Environmental Ethics

Environmental ethics is a recent branch of moral philosophy that has been systematically developed since the 1970s. It is concerned with the moral relationship between human beings and nature and considers the value and moral status of living beings, ecosystems, and the biosphere.

Surrogate Motherhood

Surrogate motherhood refers to a process in which a woman becomes pregnant on behalf of someone else and gives birth to that person’s child. Surrogacy can either be biological or legal .

Responsibility, Collective

Collective responsibility refers to the duty of individuals as members of a collective or a community to take responsibility for decisions taken by the collective relating to its actions or its failure to take action.

Water

Water refers to an inorganic, odorless, tasteless, transparent, and almost colorless liquid that is the principal constituent not only of the hydrosphere but also of the fluids of all known living organisms and as such is essential for human health and survival. Until recently water was never regard... see more

Responsibility, Corporate

Corporate responsibility refers to the duties corporations, organizations, and associations have toward individuals and groups affected directly or indirectly by their decisions and activities. Regardless of the field in which they operate, corporations are set up such that they work in a social con... see more

Justice, Global

Global Justice.

Truth Telling

Truth telling refers to communicating information that is factual . By doing so someone discloses what he or she knows as true to someone else who is in need of the information. Telling the truth is vitally important in the clinical setting. Deontologically, truth should always be told because other... see more

Cultural Diversity

The growing importance of global bioethics has reactivated the significance of the notion of moral diversity.

Generic Medication

Medicines that have the same chemical composition as pharmaceutical drugs protected by patents are called generic medication. Generic drugs can only enter the market when patents on original drugs have expired.

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus alters the immune system by specifically targeting CD4 immune cells .

Sports

Bioethical issues regarding sport are primarily related to doping.

Pharmacogenomics

Pharmacogenomics is a new field of research and clinical assistance that combines pharmacology and genomics .

Feminist Ethics

Feminist ethics refers to theories that articulate feminist approaches to ethics and is based on the conviction that traditional ethics does not pay sufficient attention to the moral experiences of women.

Authenticity

The concept of authenticity derives from the Latin authenticus and the Greek authentikos that translate as the quality of what is real, true, genuine, and original. It is a common word in many different fields such as legal affairs and psychology . Authenticity was also introduced in the realm of mo... see more

Diversity

Diversity refers to the notion that individuals are different and unique as a consequence of the race, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and religious and political beliefs of human beings not being the same.

Pediatrics

Pediatrics is a medical specialty involving the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. The first medical textbook on diseases of children was published in 1764 and the first pediatric hospital was established in Paris in 1802.

Nursing Ethics

Nursing ethics is a branch of applied ethics that examines the actions taken and decisions made by nurses. Although ethical issues gradually grew as nursing as a profession developed, it did not emerge as a special field of ethics until 1950. Florence Nightingale deemed by many as the founder of the... see more

Benefits and Harms

Article 4 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights presents the principle of benefits and harms: “In applying and advancing scientific knowledge, medical practice and associated technologies, direct and indirect benefits to patients, research participants and other affected individ... see more

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that most often affects the lungs and sometimes the kidney, spine, and brain. Not all persons infected become sick as borne out by some people developing latent TB while others have active TB. Active disease manifests itself th... see more

Equity

The word “equity” derives etymologically from the Latin aequus, aequitas and evokes feelings concerning moral dimensions.

Research

Research refers to the detailed, meticulous, systematic, and thorough study of a specific object and has the aim of discovering new information or confirming a hypothesis or interpretation by describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling the object observed.

Moral Theories

Moral theories refer to a set of normative rules formulated to guide human action, to do good and avoid bad, to do what is right and reject what is wrong, and rationally justifying such rules. Throughout history there have been many different moral theories .

Social Ethics

Social ethics differs from individual ethics in being concerned with the relationship individuals have with others and with society.

Patient Organizations

Patient organizations started with small gatherings of patients who wanted to share experiences about their own health problems such as addictions and diseases and wanted to put in place some form of reciprocal support on the basis of mutual understanding and reinforcement. The first organized meeti... see more

Vulnerability

The word “vulnerability” derives etymologically from the Latin vulnus or vulneris and can be defined as being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed either physically or emotionally by someone or something. According to the philosophical and broad approach of Emmanuel Levinas and Han... see more

Stem Cells, Embryonic

The earliest source of stem cells in humans are embryos at the blastocyst stage of their development. Such cells are identified and collected mainly from surplus embryos discarded after in vitro fertilization . The procedure requires destruction of the blastocyst. However, embryonic stem cells are i... see more

Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous knowledge refers to knowledge accrued by people indigenous to a particular region or environment. Since indigenous knowledge is unique knowledge endemic to people from a particular culture or society it is also known as traditional knowledge or local knowledge.

QALY

QALY stands for quality-adjusted life year and is a unit of measurement used to determine a patient’s health-related quality of life and the length of life expected to be lived and at the same time to assess the utility of a specific clinical treatment for a concrete disease in that patient.

Fetal Surgery

Surgical intervention on behalf of a fetus takes place, of course, inside a pregnant woman’s body, hence the reason it is sometimes called maternal–fetal surgery. Surgical procedures are usually done to correct anatomical abnormalities in the fetus such as repairing various forms of spina bifida.

Trafficking

Trafficking refers to trading human beings to exploit them. Violence, deception, or coercion are used to recruit, harbor , transport, and exploit people by forcing them to work against their will. Such exploitation includes forced prostitution, forced labor, forced marriage, servitude, and even orga... see more

Genetic Screening

Genetic screening refers to the study of someone’s DNA to identify susceptibilities or predispositions to a specific genetic disorder.

Stigmatization

Stigma refers to a mark of disgrace associated with a particular event, quality, or individual and brands that person as less worthy than others. In ancient times a stigma was a mark branded into a slave. Stigmatizing someone today means labeling him or her negatively usually as an expression of dis... see more

Cognitive Sciences

Cognitive sciences study the mind and its processes.

Human Rights

Human rights refers to a collection of basic privileges and freedoms recognized not only as belonging to all human beings but also as entitlements by virtue of being human. Such rights have been argued since antiquity as being natural and based on human faculties and as such are universal, inalienab... see more

Media Ethics

Media ethics refers to the role media play in society and to the procedural standards they follow. Since it is a branch of applied ethics it reflects the citizen’s perspective—not just that of the professional . It is the general public who express what they expect from the media and what moral valu... see more

Euthanasia, Active

Active euthanasia commonly refers stricto sensu to the act of putting someone to death to free that person from suffering. Classifying euthanasia as active indicates that an effective action not only exists but will also cause death.

Life, Definitions

Although life is of course an intimate and common reality for all of us, the first attempt at defining it was relatively recent and remains controversial. The concept of life did not arise until the early 1800s with the systematization of the new science of biology or the science of life .

Evaluation Ethics

Over the last few decades evaluation ethics has developed into a growing area of research and practical application.

Minimalist Ethics

Minimalist ethics refers to a philosophical perspective that advocates the need to identify minimum shared values in multicultural and pluralistic societies and thereby find the best possible common ground for people to live together peacefully. Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham was first to ta... see more

Property Rights

Property rights refer to the ownership of resources and their use.

Right to Try

Right to try is the name given to legislation in the United States that allows terminally ill patients to use experimental drugs that are not yet approved by the FDA. Although 40 US states have today introduced right-to-try laws, such legislation was unanimously adopted at the federal level and sign... see more

Altruism

The concept of altruism derives from the Latin term alter meaning “other.” It refers to a perspective centered on the other as opposed to one centered on the “I.” It was in its opposition to individual selfishness that the philosopher August Comte introduced the notion of altruism to characterize vo... see more

Benefit-Sharing

Article 15 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights formulates the principle of sharing benefits. It states that “Benefits resulting from any scientific research and its applications should be shared with society as a whole and within the international community, in particular with... see more

Robotics

Robotics refers to the study of robots .

Regenerative Medicine

Regenerative medicine aims at replacing, engineering, and regenerating human cells, tissues, and organs to restore normal functioning.

Subsidiarity

Subsidiarity refers to organizing or managing matters at a more decentralized level than at a larger and more complex level. The principle of subsidiarity applies to all human institutions including the state, is a general principle in EU law, and is defined in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Un... see more

Consultation

Consultation is a traditional and common activity in healthcare. When healthcare providers are uncertain about interpreting patients’ symptoms or deciding the best approach for treatment and care, they usually ask the advice of other experts.

Advance Care Planning

Advance care planning is the process in which patients discuss their goals and preferences for future treatment and care with their relatives and healthcare providers. This process is important since patients may receive treatments such as resuscitation that they preferred not to receive. Sometimes ... see more

Fertility Control

Fertility control refers to the power humankind has acquired but is constantly growing to make decisions concerning reproduction rather than leaving it to nature or human biology.

Prevention

Prevention is a traditional goal of medicine as borne out by Hippocratic writings pointing out the importance a healthy lifestyle has in preventing the occurrence of disease .

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy refers to a set of technologies aimed at correcting genes that have been injured and cause new diseases as a consequence. Gene therapy involves introducing DNA containing a functioning gene into a patient to correct the effects of a disease-causing mutation.

Bioterrorism

Bioterrorism involves the intentional release of biological agents such as the anthrax letters sent in late September 2001 in the United States. Five letters with powder containing weaponized anthrax spores were mailed and made 22 people ill, 5 of whom died. Although it was long assumed that foreign... see more

Bionics

The word “bionics” derives etymologically from the Greek word bios and the ending of the word “electronic.” It thus basically refers to an association between biology and electronics. Bionics today designates a new science developed at a time when sciences commonly converge. It combines biological k... see more

Confidentiality

Confidentiality refers to the obligation to keep all information obtained within a professional relationship confidential, private, or secret.

Nanoethics

The development of nanotechnologies in many different scientific fields and social activities raises many different ethical issues and regulatory challenges that need to be addressed at an early stage to prevent adverse impacts and to profit from potential benefits. Nanoethics is the field of ethics... see more

Research Ethics, Integrity

Research ethics refers to the principles and norms that regulate research.

Forensic Medicine

Forensic medicine is a medical specialty that makes use of medical knowledge to examine civil or criminal legal cases and determine, say, the cause and time of a suspicious death. Investigations are not limited to victims and suspects of crime, they also include people who committed suicide or died ... see more

Weapons

Weapons have long been the focus of ethical discourse since a long time. In 1096 Pope Urban II prohibited the use of crossbows introduced from China in 1096 and Pope Innocent II repeating the prohibition in 1139 both without any real effect. New weapons have long been regarded as inhuman and unfair ... see more

Proteomics

Proteomics is a branch of molecular biology and an interdisciplinary field dedicated to the large-scale study and characterization of proteomes .

Experimentation

Experimentation is the use of experiments to examine, test, and validate theories and hypotheses and is usually contrasted with observation. Experiments involving control groups are compared with other groups who have undergone some form of experimental intervention in which the most often used meth... see more

Capabilities

The notion of capabilities is central to the capabilities approach developed by philosophers Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.

Institutional Review Boards

Institutional review boards are biomedical or clinical research ethics committees whose job is to decide whether clinical research should be approved or not. They were first established as legal entities in 1974.

Population Ethics

Population ethics is an area of applied ethics concerned with the ethical problems caused by human activities aimed at controlling who is born and how people are born in the future.

Biocentrism

The word “biocentrism” derives etymologically from two Greek words bios and kentron and designates a perspective centered on all forms of life—animals, plants, and microorganisms—regardless of their particular characteristics such as sentience or the capacity to experience sensations, particularly p... see more

Mercy

Mercy is synonymous with pity and with clemency in an asymmetric relationship between someone who has failed and someone who has the power and benevolence to pardon. Indeed, mercy expresses gratuitous forgiveness that goes beyond any attempt at justifying the fault committed or finding merit in the ... see more

Consensus

The word “consensus” derives etymologically from the Latin consensus and has gained unparalleled prominence in contemporary moral philosophy.

Dental Ethics

Dental ethics is a special area of applied ethics that is primarily concerned with ethical issues in dentistry.

Homelessness

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services …” .

Medicalization

Defining problems in medical terms and using medical interventions to treat them is known as medicalization. Life is increasingly viewed through the medical lens in which all abnormal feelings are classified as diseases and addressed by prescribing medical drugs. Although the best example is the exc... see more

Assisted Reproductive Technology

Assisted reproductive technology refers to those procedures aiming to achieve pregnancy through manipulating one or both male and female gametes . The main fertilization techniques are artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization , intracytoplasmatic sperm injection , and gestational surrogacy. E... see more

Palliative Sedation

Sedation is employed in palliative care in varying ways and has resulted in different terminology being used such as terminal sedation and deep sedation and making the concept ever vaguer. Since the goal of sedation is to relieve refractory suffering by reducing consciousness, it is therefore an opt... see more

Genetic Counseling

Genetic counseling is the process in which a healthcare professional such as a genetic counselor talks to patients, family members, or a couple about a genetic or hereditary condition that runs in their family.

Food Security

Food security and food safety are two interrelated societal issues. Food safety refers to safe sources of food for human consumption that are free from chemical or microbial contamination and are properly stored , transported, labeled, prepared, processed, and cooked.

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism refers to the coexistence of a multiplicity of different human cultures in the world and of cultural, ethnic, religious, or other groups within one and the same society. People gradually became aware of multiculturalism as they traveled to new parts of the world and encountered cult... see more

Moral Distress

Moral distress refers to an ethical dilemma that crops up in healthcare between doing the right thing in a given situation and not being duly authorized to act accordingly. It was first described by Andrew Jameton in 1984 as “knowing what to do in an ethical situation, but not being allowed to do it... see more

Natural Law

Natural law refers to a moral theory that considers human behavior should follow and comply with the nature of human beings and the nature of the world such that they are objectively and universally determined. Although it does not refer to the law of nature , such a distinction has not always been ... see more

Pluralism

The concept of pluralism in philosophy refers to the statement or conviction that reality is not constituted by a single substance or two fundamental substances , but by a diversity of elements that should be understood together in their own reciprocal dynamism. Therefore pluralism is not a synonym ... see more

Globalization

In the past few decades globalization has transformed human existence. Globalization refers to a multidimensional set of social processes that have created and intensified social interdependencies connecting the local to the distant.

Pharmacy Ethics

Pharmacy ethics refers to the ethical standards for the practice of pharmacy.

Behavioral Economics

Combining psychology with economics has produced the new discipline of behavioral economics. This examines the actual processes of economic decision-making and studies why people make some decisions rather than others. The discipline provides empirical correctives to the prevailing model of Homo eco... see more

Biosafety

Biosafety is the discipline covering the safe handling and containment of infectious microorganisms and hazardous biological materials. Many laboratories today work with pathogenic organisms and their toxins. Military biological research laboratories, particularly in the United States and the Russia... see more

Zika

Zika virus refers to a disease caused by a virus primarily transmitted by mosquitoes from the genus Aedes that bite during the day. It is the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever. Apart from bites zika virus is also transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy thro... see more

Quality of Care

The WHO defines quality of care as “the extent to which health care services provided to individuals and patient populations improve desired health outcomes.”

Cost–Benefit Analysis

Decisions can be analyzed by summing up the benefits and subtracting the associated costs. Such analysis is usually applied in businesses before decisions are taken.

Bioethics, Clinical

Clinical bioethics is a practical field of applied ethics that assists health professionals in identifying, analyzing, and resolving ethical issues in clinical practice. The focus is on the application of ethical analysis within clinical settings and on specific patient cases. It can be regarded as ... see more

Donation, Gametes

Gametes are germ cells that have a single set of chromosomes. They can be male or female and have the potential for reproduction. Sperm is abundantly produced throughout life in the male body. It can easily be collected and since the 1970s cryopreserved and stored in sperm banks. Females are born wi... see more

Precautionary Principle

Although the precautionary principle lacks a consensual rigorous definition, it is commonly understood as the duty to refrain from acting whenever doing so has potentially serious and irreversible consequences that are not yet accurately determined and the obligation to take appropriate measures to ... see more

Freedom

Freedom of speech is the right individuals have to express their opinions publicly without fearing consequences. Such a right is established in the Declaration of Human Rights.

Wrongful Birth

Wrongful birth refers to parents taking legal action against a healthcare professional or institution that has failed to warn them of the risks of conceiving and/or giving birth to a child suffering from a serious incurable disease or severe disabilities passed on by the parents. Wrongful birth pres... see more

Moral Residue

Moral residue refers to the feelings experienced by healthcare professionals in a distressing situation that they felt was not satisfactorily resolved. When facing a moral dilemma , the professional involved will still fail to accomplish one of the obligations whichever one was chosen and as a resul... see more

Discrimination

Discrimination refers to making distinctions such as separating and classifying things as different. Usually, it has negative connotations because it reflects on individuals and groups in an adverse way such that they are treated differently. Discrimination violates the basic principle of human dign... see more

Clinical Ethics, Committees

See: Committees

Health Tourism

Although health tourism is basically the same as medical tourism, it has a broader meaning. It not only applies to medical interventions but also to a variety of interventions and applications aimed at maintaining and restoring health. Wellness tourism is a proactive form of medical tourism that pro... see more

Genomics

The word “genome” derives etymologically from the Greek words genesis and soma and literally means a body of genes. The word “genomics” takes the “-ics” ending of the word “technics” from the Greek techne and refers to the application of molecular techniques to the study of genes. It was first coine... see more

Mental Illness

The concept of mental illness like that of mental health is contested in the ongoing philosophical debate about the mind and mental states and raises questions concerning the interactions between mind and body. Illnesses of the mind affect the entirety of a person—not just his or her biological or p... see more

Neurotechnology

Advanced techniques and technologies are readily available today to assess, access, and examine the structures and functions of the brain. In 2013 the European Union initiated the Human Brain Project and the United States initiated Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies .

Telecare

Telecare refers primarily to the provision of remote care to people such as the elderly and disabled who have difficulties in getting to conventional care settings. Telecare is particularly important for people living in remote places such as islands and sparsely populated areas who would otherwise ... see more

Cyborg

The term “cyborg” was first coined by the Austrian neuroscientist Manfred Clynes in 1960.

Commercialism

Healthcare today is regarded by many as a business.

Addiction

Addiction is considered a condition in which an individual is unable psychologically and physically to stop consuming a chemical, drug, or substance or engaging in an activity, although it is causing psychological and physical harm. Addiction can refer to dependence on substances such as cocaine or ... see more

Conflict of Interest

Conflict of interest is a bioethical topic that is receiving rapidly increasing attention. It is an important topic in care, research, and education. It refers to situations where secondary interests influence medical/professional judgment and action.

Poverty

Poor people can be defined as people unable to meet their basic needs. Looked at from an economic perspective such people lack the financial resources to cover their needs for food, safe drinking water, shelter, clothing, education, and healthcare.

Ethicists

Ethicists are experts in ethics such as academic scholars who mainly focus on research and the teaching of ethical theories and practitioners engaged in the application of ethics to different realms of social and professional activity .

Clinical Ethics, Support

The major goal of clinical ethics is to provide support to healthcare professionals in identifying ethical issues.

BSE

Food security has become a major concern for global bioethics. Most food is no longer grown by individual people, but mass-produced by large agrobusinesses.

Death, Criteria

Throughout the ages up to relatively recently the criterion used to determine death has been roughly the same worldwide: the cessation of breathing.

Futility

The word “futility” derives etymologically from the Latin futilis . Medical futility was first used in medical practice when it became more scientifically oriented, technologically assisted , and more invasive or aggressive.

Literature

Literature is regarded as an important resource for bioethics at two levels. The first of these levels considers world literature as a repository of the fears and desires of humankind throughout history as exemplified in mythology, utopias, and science fiction.

Access to Healthcare

The human right to health as outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This includes access to all medical services and means that medical services and healthcare institutions must b... see more

Emerging Infectious Diseases

Since 1980 more than 35 “new” infectious diseases have emerged in humans . “New” refers to pathogens new to science and known agents that have crossed borders as a result of globalization.

Testing, Premarital

Premarital testing refers to analyzing the genetic material of a couple who are planning to get married to identify whether either of them carries a copy of a gene mutation , which when present in two copies causes a genetic disorder . It is particularly useful in identifying certain genetic disorde... see more

Invasive Species

An invasive species is any organism that is not native to an ecosystem and is believed to harm it. Bioinvasion was first regarded as a major threat to biodiversity in the 1990s.

Stem Cells, Induced Pluripotent

Induced pluripotent stem cells refer to a type of stem cell directly generated using reprogramming techniques from multipotent adult stem cells. Therefore iPSCs gained a lower level of differentiation and could present themselves as pluripotent. Although the only pluripotent cells in nature are embr... see more

Genetic Modification , Animals

Animals have long been genetically modified via traditional breeding techniques or via selection by humans where the aim is to increase the production of naturally occurring variations of specimens that show desirable traits.

Sustainability

Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs and was famously defined as such in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development. In addition to the commission’s report identifying the thre... see more

Cloning, Human

Human cloning refers to the artificial production via somatic cell nuclear transfer of a genetically identical copy of a human being.

Genome Editing

Genome editing refers to deliberately modifying DNA by insertion, deletion, or replacement of a gene at a specific site in the genome of an organism or cell. Rapid innovation in genome-editing technology has led to the advent of a number of methods.

Scientific Misconduct

Scientific misconduct is usually strictly defined as the “fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.”

Surgery

Surgery refers to the branch of medical practice that treats injuries, diseases, and deformities by physically removing, repairing, or readjusting organs and tissues and usually involves cutting into the body. It is one of the oldest branches of medicine and is usually undertaken to resolve acute in... see more

Migration

Mobility is one of the characteristics of globalization and manifests itself in the movement of people from one place to another either within a country or more often from one country to another. The International Organization for Migration was established in 1951 and was integrated in the United Na... see more

Interculturality

Interculturality differs from multiculturalism and acculturation in its focus on interaction. Although the prefix “inter” hints at separation, linkage, and communication, it acknowledges diversity, global values, and common perspectives. In contrast, multiculturalism has become problematic in that i... see more

Fairness

Fairness is frequently used by philosophers to refer to justice and distributive justice . Justice is interpreted as fair when it is equitable, when it demands individuals receive the same treatment irrespective of what life throws at them, and when it compensates them when they suffer adversity.

In Vitro Fertilization

In vitro fertilization is an assisted reproductive technology procedure consisting in artificial retrieval of sperm and oocytes , treatment and selection of gametes, placing sperm and oocytes together in a petri dish, waiting for fusion to happen naturally , and transfer of the mature embryo into a ... see more

Life, Quality of

Quality of life is a highly controversial concept as a result of being confused with other closely related concepts such as health and well-being and by being perceived differently throughout history, during someone’s own lifetime, or according to culture. Although the consensual indicators used to ... see more

Clinical Ethics, General

Clinical ethics strictly refers to the ethics of clinical practice.

Technology Assessment

Technology assessment refers to the systematic study of the effects introduction, extension, or modification of a technology might have on society . The Office of Technology Assessment in the United States has provided the following definition: “Medical technology assessment is, in a narrow sense, t... see more

Abuse, Elder

A relatively new phenomenon is elder abuse. The significant increase in life expectancy in many societies has led to aging of the population. Although instances of elder abuse have been reported in history, it has become an increasing concern since the 1970s. The WHO defines elder abuse as “a single... see more

Life, General

The concept of life is as common in daily usage as it is difficult to explain and the plurality of the contexts in which it is used are as ambiguous as the meanings it expresses. This is the reason the via negativa is the easiest approach to explaining the concept of life .

Bioprospecting

Bioprospecting is the systematic search for biological and genetic resources in plants, animals, and microorganisms in the wild. The basic idea is that such a search will potentially deliver genes and chemical products that will benefit humanity, especially by delivering pharmaceuticals. Many pharma... see more

Disability

Disability is a complicated notion. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a person with a disability as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more everyday activities.

Managed Care

Managed care refers to organizing healthcare provision in such a way that costs are reduced and quality of care is improved. It is the dominant system of delivering and receiving healthcare in the United States . The primary concern of managed care programs is cutting costs as a result of health ins... see more

Institutional Ethics

Institutional ethics refers to the application of ethics in such institutions as hospitals, professional organizations, and corporations. It regards institutions as moral agents with responsibilities and accountability.

Living Will

A living will is a formal document in which someone can freely state his or her own wishes concerning healthcare regarding a future situation in which that person is no longer competent or able to give consent. A living will is an advance directive that extends the principle of autonomy to those who... see more

Gene Editing

This entry is discussed under Genome editing.

Plagiarism

The word “plagiarism” derives etymologically from the Latin plagium .

Covid-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 is official shorthand for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Common Good

Common good refers to the idea that there are certain goods that are desirable by society as a whole such as justice and peace.

Personalism

Personalism is a philosophical doctrine centered on the value of a person considered as a being in a relationship and within a community .

AIDS

AIDS is acquired immune deficiency syndrome. It is the result of infection with human immunodeficiency virus . It is the last stage of HIV infection and will lead to death if not treated. After infection it can take 2–15 years to develop. The infection destroys the immune system. When AIDS occurs, t... see more

Assisted Suicide

Assisted suicide refers to the deliberate act of helping someone to bring about their own death or being clinically helped to do it. In such a case assistance is required to guarantee the person dies effectively and efficiently . These goals can only be assured by clinical assistance through the ing... see more

Complicity

Complicity refers to sharing the same goals, participating in the same actions, and working together to achieve them.

Maximin Principle

The maximin principle was proposed by John Rawls as a central concept in his work A Theory of Justice for use as a reasonable criterion to help someone choose between several alternatives in a situation of uncertainty . Such a theory of rational choice and decision considers the right decision would... see more

Bioprinting

Bioprinting is a new technology enabling the production of three-dimensional tissue and organ structures . Such a technology is increasingly being developed in life sciences and basic research studying cellular mechanisms focused on tissue regeneration and applied to building tissues and organs for ... see more

Double Standards

Double standards refer to the application of different principles to situations that are essentially the same.

Research Ethics, Clinical Research

Clinical research is an important part of biomedical research.

Organ Donation

See for this entry under Donation

Mismanagement

Managing something incompetently, badly, or wrongly is called mismanagement. There are many forms of mismanagement the best known being financial mismanagement. An example is the bankruptcy in 2008 of Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the United States as a consequence of unwise... see more

Bioethics, Global

After Potter coined the term “bioethics” in 1971 the new discipline rapidly developed. Nevertheless, Potter was disappointed at what he felt was its narrow medical focus. He was dismayed that little attention was given to ecological and social issues. This prompted him in 1988 to introduce the notio... see more

Mistakes, Medical

Medical mistakes or errors are more common than people might think. Ever since publication of the 1998 report To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System by the Institute of Medicine in the United States people have suddenly become aware that medical errors are a significant cause of death. The ... see more

Clinical Ethics, Teaching

Teaching ethics in the clinical setting is a specialized form of bioethics education.

Euthanasia, Concept

The word “euthanasia” derives etymologically from the Greek eu and thanatos and thus literally means good death. Euthanasia refers to the act of putting someone to a “good death” in the absence of any legal sanctions to do so to end a state of suffering considered by the patient as worse than death.

Adoption

Adoption is the transfer of legal parenting rights from one parent to someone else. Related adoption is when a relative takes over the parenting of another person, usually a child, from the biological or legal parents of that person. In non-related adoption all rights and responsibilities are assume... see more

Biosecurity

The term “biosecurity” was initially used to protect agriculture, livestock, and the environment against invasive species and diseases. Human health was later included when infectious diseases were regarded as security threats. The term has been widely used since the War on Terror to focus on concer... see more

Biological Weapons

Soon after the terrorist attacks in the United States five letters containing weaponized anthrax spores were mailed . They made 22 people ill, 5 of whom died. The FBI investigation took a long time since the assumption was that foreign terrorists or governments were responsible. Although the FBI con... see more

Principlism

Principlism is the name given to theoretical models of bioethics structured by giving voice to and founding ethical principles that have evolved as a result of the many different ways such principles have been applied to concrete cases.

Family Medicine

Family medicine is a branch of medicine focused on providing comprehensive healthcare within the family and community. It is also known as general practice or primary healthcare. The World Organization of Family Doctors defines family medicine as the provision of personal, comprehensive, and continu... see more

Citizenship, General

Citizenship refers to membership of a political community.

Information Technology

Information technology refers to the design, development, use, and implementation of computer-based information systems . It includes creating, storing, processing, securing, and distributing all forms of electronic data , networking, and systems that facilitate communication .

Organ Trade

The organ trade involves the selling and buying of human organs and reducing them to goods or merchandise subject to laws of the market such as supply and demand. It is the overwhelming need for life-saving organs combined with their scarcity that trigger and foster the organ trade. Although organs ... see more

Trust

Trust refers to the personal feeling and social bond an individual feels toward someone else concerning the latter’s truthfulness or reliability and establishes a specific bond between them that in the absence of trust does not really exist. Trust has long been used in a religious context as the onl... see more

Clinical Research

Reliable information about medication, treatments, and devices is generated by means of clinical research.

Slippery Slope

The slippery slope is an argument used in bioethics and many other areas.

Justice, Intergenerational-Intragenerational

A new feature of global bioethics is the extension of ethical concerns to future generations. Since people are becoming increasingly aware that their existence depends on the survival of the planet and the preservation of a common heritage the conviction that global justice should not only be intrag... see more

Avian Flu

Emerging infectious diseases are among the best examples showing that biomedical and environmental ethics cannot be separated. Pandemics of viruses such as avian influenza, Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19 are the consequences of human interventions such as deforestation for the sake of economic developmen... see more

SARS

Severe acute respiratory syndrome is an illness caused by an airborne coronavirus and was first identified in 2003.

Donation, Blood

Blood is the most common biological material that is donated since it is the most abundant and the easiest to procure . Moreover, since it is constantly produced it can be regularly donated. Collecting donated blood is less invasive and more safe than other forms of donation. It is not only the most... see more

Aesthetic Medicine

Aesthetic medicine reflects a new trend in medicine. It is the application of medical procedures to improve the physical appearance of patients to their satisfaction. It uses non-invasive or minimally invasive cosmetic procedures. The patients concerned are not suffering any illness and are usually ... see more

Big Data

Big data refer to the extremely large datasets that have been produced, to the procedures used to collect and store such datasets, to the way in which they are organized algorithmically, to their computational analysis in significant associations and trends, and to their presentation patterns all of... see more

Bioethical Imperialism

One of the controversies in global bioethics is whether ethical principles are universally applicable or limited to a specific cultural context. Some anthropological and sociological studies advance the idea that globalization is in fact a form of Westernization. Moral values are dependent on cultur... see more

Rehabilitation

The WHO describes rehabilitation as “a set of interventions needed when a person is experiencing or is likely to experience limitations in everyday functioning due to ageing or a health condition, including chronic diseases or disorders, injuries or traumas.”

Committees, International Ethics Committees

The establishment of international ethics committees started in the 1980s in Europe concomitant with the worldwide expansion of bioethics thus acknowledging the importance of having common bioethical standards in different countries and contributing to the validity and credibility of global bioethic... see more

Risk

Risk refers to the possibility of loss, injury, adverse outcomes, or unwelcome circumstances.

Surrogate Decision-Making

Surrogate decision-making refers to authorizing a third person to make decisions about the healthcare treatment provided by a professional to a patient who is unable to express his or her wishes as a result of being, say, a minor, mentally incapacitated, senile, or no longer self-aware. Such a proxy... see more

Torture

Torture refers to inflicting pain on someone to extract information or a confession and has long been commonly practiced in human history. For example, doctors during the Renaissance doctors were required to attend when someone was tortured and asked to certify whether he or she was fit to undergo t... see more

Bioengineering

Bioengineering is a relatively young field that combines the knowledge of living systems with engineering principles. It is often applied in medicine and the life sciences when it is then called “biomedical engineering.” Forms of biological engineering can also be applied in other areas such as agri... see more

Biolaw

Biolaw refers to legislation concerning the development and use of biotechnologies throughout the entire process. This includes everything from project design , to the procedures implemented , through to potential impacts . Biolaw has a broad scope in that it concerns individual and social levels, h... see more

Persistent Vegetative State

Persistent vegetative state was first described in 1972 and refers to a clinical condition in which there is a lack of self-awareness despite the patient having sleep–wake cycles, other basic reflexes , being capable of spontaneous breathing, and maintaining complete or partial hypothalamic and brai... see more

Ghostwriting

Ghostwriting refers to authors writing work on behalf of others. It is not uncommon and many famous people produce books that they have not written themselves in this way. However, ghostwriting is relatively new in scientific publications.

Harm

In bioethical discourse the term “harm” is often used as the opposite of benefit. Since Hippocratic times a basic ethical principle of medical ethics has been primum non nocere .

Governance

Governance is the process of governing and is often contrasted with government as an institution.

Research Ethics, Embryo

Embryo research refers to the study of human embryos .

Double Effect

Double effect refers to the moral legitimacy of an action that causes serious harm as an involuntary, unpredictable, or unavoidable side effect of another action that deliberately aims at performing a commonly recognized good.

Applied Ethics

Applied ethics is the branch of ethics focused on the resolution of concrete moral problems raised by different socioprofessional activities. Applied ethics differs from professional ethics in that it promotes the citizen’s perspective emphasizing regulation by non-professionals, while professional ... see more

Religion and Bioethics

When bioethics emerged as a new discipline in the 1970s, it was strongly connected to religion.

Bioethics and Religion

When bioethics first appeared many practitioners of the new discipline were theologians and religious scholars. The original core of the bioethical literature was produced by philosophers and theologians. Both disciplines were associated with broad and critical perspectives on relevant moral challen... see more

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is defined as “therapy based on engagement in meaningful activities of daily life , especially to enable or encourage participation in such activities despite impairments or limitations in physical or mental functioning” .

Pollution

The word “pollution” derives etymologically from the Latin pollŭo .

Genetic Determinism

Genetic determinism is a doctrine that states that all features of living organisms are dictated not only by their genetic constitution including physical and psychological characteristics but also by their behavior.

Food Ethics

Food is fundamental to the survival of all living beings by fulfilling homeostatic needs. Living beings instinctively choose the kind of food that satisfies their nutritional needs and can be processed by their digestive system.

Conscientious Objection

Conscientious objection refers to the legal claim or moral privilege of an individual to refuse to comply with a professional obligation for conscientious, religious, or moral reasons.

Good Death

The expression “good death” derives etymologically from the Greek euthanatos and is commonly used synonymously with and euphemistically for the current concept of euthanasia.

Transplantation Medicine

Transplantation medicine refers to a relatively recent form of medicine that started in the second half of the twentieth century after the first successful experimental kidney transplant in 1954. This new medical field became well known as a result of the discovery of histocompatibility and the deve... see more

War

Throughout history war has been a subject of ethical debate raising such questions as: Can war be morally justified? What are the moral rules that apply to warfare? When is war justified? This debate has led to a substantial body of just war theory. The rules of war can be broken down into two moral... see more

Research Ethics, Interspecies

Interspecies research refers to the production of a new being called an interspecies chimera in biomedical research.

Stem Cells, Adult

Stem cells refer to adult or somatic stem cells obtained from adult body tissues. They are found in the body from the earliest days of embryonic development and endure throughout the lifecycle, although they are rare, dispersed, and difficult to identify. Adult stem cells are generally restricted to... see more

Evolutionary Ethics

Evolutionary ethics explores what ethics and morality mean for evolutionary theory. It assumes that ethics and the moral sense of human beings is the result of natural selection. Morality emerged as a natural phenomenon during the evolution of human beings—not as a result of rational faculties or di... see more

Compliance

Compliance designates a sequence comprising two movements: the recognition of a duty and the willingness to accomplish it .

Veterinary Ethics

Veterinary ethics refers to the ethical study of veterinary medicine. Veterinarians have to balance the demands of animal health, clients, industry, employers, society, business, and animal welfare. The five types of ethical obligations widely recognized in veterinary medicine are: first, obligation... see more

Mediation

Mediation is a process in which arbitration and intervention are used in a dispute to resolve it. Since it is a form of dispute resolution it involves a third party who has the necessary communication skills and negotiation techniques to bring about a settlement and assist the disputing parties in f... see more

International Law

International law consists of laws that govern the relations between signatory countries, lies outside the legal jurisdiction of individual states, and is closely related to human rights. One of the primary goals of the United Nations was the development of international law.

Proportionality

Proportionality refers to the correspondence certain characteristics or variables have with each other or the balance between two elements.

Animal Ethics

Animal ethics broadly refers to ethical theories and to moral and legal practices concerning the relationships that humans ought to have toward animals. It is a growing field that covers many different human activities involving animals mainly at the scientific, industrial, and utilitarian level. An... see more

Professional Ethics

Professional ethics refers to specific moral standards that regulate the practice of a particular profession.

Care Ethics

Care ethics is a moral theory or moral approach that values human relationships and the supportive network they build. It is motivated by the willingness to care for others that is basic to human existence, especially for those in vulnerable situations, and promotes an overall feeling of well-being.

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of globalization. It is a conglomerate of ideas focused on promoting the free market such as competition, privatization, deregulation, reduction of public expenditure, tax reform, and protection of property rights. According to such an ideology globalization is... see more

Citizenship, Biological

Biological citizenship defines citizenship from a biological standpoint in that people belong to a community and claim rights because the diseases and injuries they are prone to as well as their genetic status are similar.

Anticommons

Globalization has reactivated the interest in commons. Commons are shared domains, materials, products, resources, and services that have played a central role in the history of humankind. The Commission on Global Governance in 1995 discussed global commons as an opportunity—not as a tragedy. They a... see more

Reproductive Autonomy

Reproductive autonomy refers to the right women have to full control over their bodies and particularly for reproductive purposes .

Capacity Building

The application and implementation of bioethics presupposes that appropriate capacities exist.

Bioethics, Environmental

In Potter’s distinction between medical and environmental bioethics the last form of bioethics is concerned with the survival of humanity. It concentrates on responsibilities toward future generations and takes a long-term view associated with the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. The sco... see more

Brain Death

Most countries now require brain death to be determined before organs can be removed from patients for postmortem organ donation.

Development

The notion of development encapsulates the idea of growth, progress, and advancement.

Clinical Ethics Consultation

Clinical ethics consultation is strictly speaking a service mostly available in Anglo-Saxon healthcare institutions that assists healthcare providers, patients, families, and other involved parties in complex decision-making processes.

Predictive Medicine

Although the idea that medicine could have a predictive side is not new, predictive medicine as a subspecialty in healthcare is quite recent.

Integrity, Professional

Professional integrity stricto sensu refers to integrity being practiced in the professional realm .

Moral Status

Moral status refers to a value recognized as belonging or ascribed to a particular entity according to which its protection is a moral and often legal obligation. Considered more broadly, the grounds for moral status always refer to the interests of the entity in question. For example, there may be ... see more

Cloning, General

Cloning is the term used to designate asexual reproduction whether natural or artificial in which the offspring is an exact copy of the original, which can be a single-cell organism, a plant, or an animal.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology refers to the controlled manipulation of materials at the atomic or molecular scale termed the nanoscale brought about after about 2 decades of basic nanoscience research.

Research Ethics, Research Ethics Committees

The historical origin of research ethics committees can be traced back to the 1970s when it became increasingly clear that biomedical research needed some form of monitoring.

Egalitarianism

Egalitarianism is a philosophical doctrine that is particularly important in sociopolitical and moral thought and characterized by the central role it gives to equality. However, it is not always evident what sort of equality people are referring to or is at stake . Such a lack of clarity lies at th... see more

Health, Concept

Although health is the primary goal of healthcare, it is a complicated concept not easy to define. Etymologically, health is related to wholeness and integrity. If someone’s health is affected, then he or she will be healed and made whole again.

Civil Disobedience

The active refusal of citizens to obey certain laws or government orders is regarded as civil disobedience.

Information Ethics

Information ethics is a branch of applied ethics strictly focusing on the creation, control, use, and impact of information technology at the personal and social level. More broadly, it can also cover libraries, journalism, media, and computers.

Compassion

The word “compassion” derives etymologically from the Latin words cum and patior .

Research Policy

Scientific research and innovation today are widely recognized in Western countries as critical to the development of societies and to the well-being and quality of life of people as borne out by the majority of developed countries increasing their investment in science and innovation.

Moral Relativism

Moral relativism refers to the idea that there is no universal or absolute set of moral principles since they are culturally embedded and change according to the beliefs or circumstances of different peoples. Moral relativism has its roots in Ancient Greece with the pre-Socratic philosopher Protagor... see more

Competence

Competence refers to a set of abilities such as knowledge, skills, values, and virtues necessary to efficiently and successfully carry out a task entrusted to someone or a task for which someone is responsible.

Citizenship, Ecological

Ecological citizenship is a recent notion in which cosmopolitan citizenship is demanded.

Health Insurance

Medical needs are often financed by health insurance. It is argued that most people could not afford healthcare without having some kind of health insurance.

Organoid

An organoid can be a mass of cells or tissue, a complex three-dimensional biological structure, or a miniature organ grown in vitro from pluripotent stem cells or primary human donor tissue that self-organizes and becomes functional as a real organ.

Virus Sharing

Virus sharing refers to the sharing of viruses for global pandemic preparedness, pandemic risk assessment, candidate vaccine virus development, updating of diagnostic reagents and test kits, and monitoring resistance to antiviral medicines. Benefit sharing is a fundamental principle of global bioeth... see more

Health, Global

Global health is defined by the WHO as “the area of study, research and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide.”

Common Heritage of Humankind

The common heritage of humankind is a notion that was introduced in international law in the late 1960s to regulate common resources such as the ocean bed and outer space.

Sexual Ethics

Sexual ethics is the area of applied ethics focused on human sexuality and sexual behavior.

Prenatal Genetic Screening

Prenatal genetic screening refers to the analysis of genetic material of a fetus to identify the presence, absence or modification of a particular DNA sequence, gene or chromosome.

Communication, Media

The term communication media refers to the means or systems of receiving, storing, and transmitting information or data. Media is the plural of the Latin word medium that designates an intermediate element.

Biobanking

A biobank is a repository that stores biological samples for use in research. There is a huge range of human tissue sources that can be used in research. Special banks have been established to collect brain tissue, blood, umbilical cord cells, sperm, and other tissues for current and future use. Man... see more

Moral Entrepreneur

The concept of moral entrepreneur is specifically used in theories that explain how norms are implemented in everyday practice. Changes and improvements in ethical and human rights practices are more often the result of efforts made by grassroots movements than those of global institutions. Although... see more

Communication, Ethics

Communication ethics refers to the moral standards with which communication should comply in any form and at all levels ranging from the interpersonal to the institutional.

Testing, Genetic

Genetic testing refers to analyzing genetic material to identify the presence, absence, or modification of a particular DNA sequence, gene, or chromosome to determine the possibility of developing or passing on a genetic disorder common in someone’s family or in his or her ethnic group. It is a type... see more

Electronic Patient Records

Traditional paper patient records are increasingly being displaced by electronic patient records . They contain the usual information such as diagnoses, medications, interventions, medical history, and radiological images.

Children and Research

The first regulations established for medical research involving children were intended to protect children from such research .

Doping

Doping refers to the illicit use of drugs to enhance both performance in sports and the ability of athletes to win. Such a practice is of course contrary to the spirit of sports and can endanger the health of athletes.

Clinical Ethics, Methods

Clinical ethics is essentially a practical discipline focused on the resolution of problems that arise in the care of patients.

Deontology, Professional

The word “deontology” derives etymologically from the Greek deon and logos and thus literally means the study of duties.

Personalized Medicine

Personalized medicine is a form of precision medicine . It is based on the unique genetic or molecular profile of each patient and provides customized treatment specifically tailored to characteristics of that particular patient .

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are scientific research projects involving human subjects.

Military Ethics

Military ethics refers to ethical standards or behavior considered right, appropriate, and desirable in the military setting. It is a branch of applied ethics primarily practiced in military academies and universities. Although the bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and... see more

Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery differs from aesthetic medicine in that it is solely focused on surgery for aesthetic purposes, whereas aesthetic medicine involves both surgical and non-surgical procedures.

Commodification

Healthcare has long been subject to market thinking where it is associated with commodification.

Reproductive Ethics

Reproductive ethics is a broad field covering all moral questions related to the medicalization of human reproduction.

Internet

The internet is a global computer network providing all manner of information and facilitating various forms of communication. Although it is often used synonymously for the World Wide Web, they are different.

Citizenship, Genetic

The rise of genetics and the growing dissemination of genetic information have promoted the concept of genetic citizenship.

Science Ethics

Science ethics can refer strictly to the ethics of science or broadly to the relationship between science and ethics.

Bioethics, Education

The number of ethics-teaching programs rapidly grew in the early 1970s, primarily in medical schools in the United States. In a relatively short period of time almost all medical schools introduced ethics education. Currently, such schools are required to include bioethics in their curricula to be a... see more

Care Drain

The care drain is a similar phenomenon to the brain drain. It is primarily focused on care workers and nurses. One reason for the care drain is the rapidly ageing population of many developed countries. This has created shortages of care workers not just for the elderly but also for the disabled, th... see more

Ownership

Ownership refers to having the exclusive right and control over some form of property. There can be different types of owners such as individuals, states, corporations, and organizations; different models of ownership such as private, public, collective, and common; and different types of property s... see more

Corruption

Corruption is widespread and comes in many varieties and manifestations making it difficult to define.

Wrongful Life

Wrongful life refers to parents or custodians taking legal action against a healthcare professional or institution that has failed to prevent the birth of a child suffering from a serious incurable disease or severe disability. Wrongful life presupposes that the life of such a child would hardly be ... see more

Xenograft

The prefix “xeno” derives etymologically from the Greek xeno and a “graft” medically refers to a piece of living tissue surgically transplanted. Xenografts are thus foreign to the recipient in that they are harvested from an animal species different from that of the recipient. Specialized scientific... see more

Capacity

Capacity generally refers to the maximum amount of something such as material goods that can be accommodated in a particular container

Regulation on Clinical Trials

The European Union regulated clinical trials long before the most recent regulation entered into force

Research Ethics, Animal

Animals have been used in scientific research since ancient times.

Grassroots Activism

Grassroots activism is an example of globalization from below. It is commonly assumed in global bioethics that the best way to influence and change practices is by developing and implementing global standards.

CRISPR

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat is one of the most recent gene-editing technologies.

Stewardship

Stewardship refers to the care and management of resources and goods that is expected to be done in a responsible manner and stewards refer to the people entrusted with such care and management. It should be kept in mind that stewards are guardians or trustees. Although they do not own what is entru... see more

Abuse, Concept

According to its etymological roots abuse means excess of use where excess is in itself contrary to harmony or to what is convenient. Abuse has two meanings. One is misuse or the use of something for a bad purpose . The second is maltreatment such as the cruel and violent treatment of a human or ani... see more

Empathy

The word “empathy” derives etymologically from the Greek en and pathos . It refers to the psychological capacity to feel what another person is feeling, to sense that person’s emotions, and to imagine or understand what others are going through and what and how they are feeling.

Ageism

Ageism is discrimination on the basis of age. In healthcare it refers to providing less favorable treatment to persons because of their chronological age. Like racism or sexism negative discrimination on the basis of age is unjustifiable. In principle it can be directed against young people but in p... see more

Animal Welfare

Animal welfare refers to the quality of life of animals that humans relate to and have moral obligations. The state of an animal’s welfare indicates how the animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. The requisite quality of life or standards of care largely refer to the protection of e... see more

Donation, Embryo

Embryo donation is the process in which an embryo is freely gifted. Such a process was made possible by assisted reproductive technologies that have since the 1970s been able to produce human embryos outside the womb and then transfer them to the woman’s body or cryopreserve them and later transfer ... see more

Communication, General

Communication is the transmission of a message —verbal or non-verbal, through body signs or behavior, oral or written—from someone to someone else requiring there to be an effective contact between both .

Integrity, Personal

Personal integrity can refer to someone’s physical, psychological, or moral status. Physical integrity refers to conserving someone’s natural state in which his or her body is not invaded without permission.

Enhancement

Enhancement refers to improving human capacities and traits according to designated goals and criteria. At such a general level it could be argued that all educational projects contribute to human enhancement in which case human enhancement has a positive connotation.

Zoocentrism

The word “zoocentrism” derives etymologically from the Greek zoon and kentron . The Greek suffix -ismós expresses the general scope of the word to which it is added. Zoocentrism refers to the different doctrines that consider animals as having moral worth, regard animals from a perspective centered ... see more

Responsibility, General

Responsibility refers to the duty someone has to answer for what he or she has brought about. It has a long history that can be traced back to Ancient Greece. Plato and Aristotle used the Greek aitios to relate the actions someone takes and the effects they have to that individual taking responsibil... see more

Indigenous Ethical Perspectives

Indigenous ethical perspectives look at the way indigenous knowledge is dealt with. Indigenous knowledge is local knowledge unique to a given society and culture who are characterized by their geography

Infertility

Infertility is defined as the inability of a woman or a couple to achieve pregnancy in one year of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Historically, infertility has been traditionally associated with women. It was considered a curse, a sign of sin, or a punishment and no matter how it was interp... see more

Right to Die

The right to die refers to the claim that individuals should be entitled to choose to end their lives under specific clinical conditions such as imminent death, terminal illness, and when they are suffering physically or psychologically. The right to die in the clinical setting entails the direct or... see more

Eugenics

The word “eugenics” derives etymologically from the Greek eu and gene and thus literally means well born. It was used in ancient times to value the birth of something positive over the birth of something negative according to criteria then in force.

Censorship

Bioethics analysis and debate presupposes the free communication of information. Censorship restricts the freedom to communicate ideas and opinions and should only occur if it can be justified. Several recent cases have made the issue relevant.

Global Fund

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was established in 2002 as an independent organization in the form of a partnership made up of governments, civil society, and technical organizations such as the WHO.

Informed Consent

See under the entry Consent.

Alternative Medicine

Alternative medicine refers to medical systems and interventions that are outside the established domain of conventional or regular medicine and outside the domain of scientific evidence. It is also called complementary medicine. It is widely used. More than 40% of adults in the United States use so... see more

Human Dignity

The word “dignity” derives etymologically from the Latin dignitas and originally referred to someone holding a prominent social or political position.

ICSI

Intracytoplasmatic sperm injection is an assisted reproductive technology procedure consisting in artificial retrieval of sperm and oocytes

Global Justice

Global justice refers to applying the principle of justice to global bioethics. There are a number of reasons global justice has become a normative tool in global bioethics: globalization is associated with increasing inequality and inequity; globalization has not led to a world that has a level pla... see more

Euthanasia, History

The word “euthanasia” derives etymologically from the Greek eu and thanatos and thus literally means good death. Although it was practiced in Ancient Greece, there is evidence of its previous use. One of the most famous examples is the killing of disabled newborns in Sparta who were thrown off a cli... see more

Narrative Ethics

Although narrative ethics is a specific approach to ethical problems within the healthcare setting that focuses on narratives from the patient, it also involves others such as family and healthcare professionals. It grants an ethical status to narratives as a process to elucidate personal experience... see more

Resource Allocation

Resource allocation refers to assigning available resources for various uses and is a practice commonly applied in economics, management, and strategic planning.

Life Sciences

Life sciences are used for the scientific study of life. The word “biological” derives etymologically from the Greek bios and logos . The systematic study of life started in Ancient Greece by the philosopher Aristotle in the third century BC. Based on the observation of nature his study was teleolog... see more

Data Sharing

The idea of commons has been rehabilitated in today’s global bioethics and used to redefine the public domain.

Biosphere

The term “biosphere” was first coined by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess in 1875 to refer to the layer approximately 20 km thick on and around Earth in which life exists. The term was popularized by the Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky in his book The Biosphere .

Stem Cells, General

Stem cells refer to undifferentiated cells that can turn into almost any cell an organism needs in its lifecycle. Although the word “stem” generally refers to a central, supportive, or main section of something from which other parts can develop and grow, in biology stem cells refer to precursor or ... see more

IAB (See also SIBI)

The International Association of Bioethics (IAB) was established in 1992 at the initiative of three philosophers—Australians Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse and the American Dan Wikler. It gathers together a membership from various disciplines made up mainly of philosophers, physicians, and lawyers fro... see more

EGE (See also International committees)

The European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) is a neutral, independent, pluralist, and multidisciplinary body (gathering a broad range of professional competencies such as biology, genetics, medicine, pharmacology, agricultural sciences, information and communications technolog... see more

Council of Europe/CoE (See also Oviedo Convention)

The Council of Europe (CoE) is the oldest European organization still active and the continent’s leading human rights organization (https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal). It was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War (1949) in Strasbourg (France) by 8 countries to promote human rights in Euro... see more

Oviedo Convention (See also Council of Europe)

The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine was prepared by the Committee of Experts on Bioethics/CAHBI and issued by the Council of Europe (CoE). It is known as th... see more

FGC (Female Genital Cutting)

Female genital cutting (FGC) is a common traditional practice in many countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Children and Ethics (See Pediatrics)

Since children are vulnerable they are given special attention in bioethical discourse.

Organizational Ethics (See Institutional Ethics)

The area of applied ethics examining the ethics of organizations is called organizational ethics. It studies the operating structure (horizontal or vertical) of organizations and their ethical behavior. The way organizations are organized influences relationships within the organization and the rela... see more

Donation, Body (Corpse)

Demand for human corpses is as old as human curiosity to understand how the human body works. Mainly since the Renaissance (fourteenth century) and the beginning of practice-based knowledge (instead of authority-based knowledge) and experimentalism, schools of medicine and scientists needed corpses ... see more

Chronic Illness and Care (See Care Ethics)

Although chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma have always existed, they have become a major challenge for contemporary healthcare systems.

Quality of Life (See Life, Quality of; QALY)

Quality of life has become a common factor in discussions today about healthcare and bioethics.

Communitarian Ethics (See Communitarianism)

Communitarian ethics focuses on the importance of the community and emphasizes the influence community has on human beings.

Birth Control (See Contraception; Fertility Control)

Birth control is the use of methods or devices to prevent pregnancy.

Animal Rights (See Animal Ethics; Animal Research; Animal Welfare; Vegetarianism; Zoocentrism)

The Animal Rights Movement advocates that animals as subjects of a life (i.e., having a life of their own and their own story of life) also have interests that can only be adequately protected if they are considered as rights. Animals are then also said to be subjects of rights. The claim that anima... see more

Autonomy (See Respect for Autonomy)

The word “autonomy” derives etymologically from two Greek words auto (self) and nomos (law, rule). Thus it literally means self-government. Autonomy at the social level refers to the laws people establish to regulate themselves (synonymous with independence) and at the individual level it refers to ... see more

Genetic Modification (GMOs), Food

Food production is the most relevant reason to genetically modify organisms. Genetic modification first started with vegetables in 1994.

Committees, Research Ethics Committees (See Research Ethics; Research Ethics Committees)

Research ethics committees have been established in a wide range of institutions where clinical research is conducted such as hospitals, research centers, and universities.

Vivisection (See Animal Ethics; Animal Research)

Vivisection refers to the practice of carrying out operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research. When vivisection is carried out on humans it is regarded today as torture. Animal experiments have long been used in the history of medicine and have been justifie... see more

Ecocentrism (See Anthropocentrism; Biocentrism; Environmental Ethics; Zoocentrism)

The word “ecocentrism” derives etymologically from the Greek oikos (house) and kentron (center). It is a perspective that considers planet Earth as the house in which all creatures dwell.

Epidemics (See Epidemiology)

Infectious diseases can be endemic, epidemic, or pandemic. An epidemic is the rapid spread of an infectious disease to a large number of people in a given population within a short period of time (e.g., measles in a specific country or region).

Cloning, Animal (See Animal Cloning)

Animal cloning spontaneously happens in nature via various means. Such cloning commonly refers to the artificial production of animals that are genetically identical to the progenitor.

Animal Research (See Animal Ethics; Animal Welfare; Animal Cloning)

The use of animals in scientific research appears to be almost as old as the beginning of medicine. For example, vivisection is already reported in the Corpus Hippocraticum (4th to 1st century BC) and by Galen (2nd century). The use of animals was strongly revived in the Renaissance. In the 19th cen... see more

Respect for Autonomy (See Autonomy)

Respect for autonomy is a principle of bioethics (i.e., an ethical obligation in the life sciences) that acknowledges individual autonomy and the duty to respect, comply, and act accordingly with it.

Medical Tourism (See Health Tourism)

One of the consequences of globalization is mobility as clearly demonstrated in the field of healthcare with health professionals migrating from developing countries to the developed world. Furthermore, patients from developed countries are increasingly seeking medical treatment in developing countr... see more

Genetic Modification (GMOs), Human Beings

Advances in genetic modification techniques (mainly genetic editing) have opened up the possibility of applying them to human beings. Modification of the human genome can be done at the somatic level (altering the individual) and the germline level (altering the individual and his or her descendants... see more

Privacy (See: Confidentiality)

Privacy refers to the right to keep confidential, secret, or private anything that concerns someone’s own private life.

Animal Cloning (See Animal Ethics; Animal Research; Cloning)

Cloning in the animal world is achieved naturally in several ways. Asexual reproduction is when an organism creates a copy of itself without any contribution of genetic material from another individual. It is the most elementary form of (plant and) animal cloning and happens in nature through fragme... see more

Resuscitation (including DNR Orders)

Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is often shortened to “resuscitation” and refers to emergency procedures to maintain circulation when the heart has stopped beating and the lungs are struggling to work. It is often enough to restart the heart by applying chest compressions and to restore lung fu... see more

Hunger (See Food Security)

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 2019 some 842 million people were suffering chronic hunger, did not have enough food to conduct an active life, and lived by and large in developing regions

Chimera (See Research Ethics, Interspecies)

The Chimera was a fabulous creature in Greek mythology (khimaros) that had a lion’s head, a goat’s body, a dragon’s tail, and breathed fire.

Environmentalism (See Ecocentrism)

Environmentalism refers broadly to a wide variety of environmental doctrines ranging from the more radical deep ecology (fighting for a break with the current civilization model) to a more conventional environmental sustainability (accommodating different interests in society).

Capital Punishment (See Death Penalty)

Capital punishment refers to the death penalty. Both expressions are synonymous despite focusing on different aspects. The former stresses the notion of punishment (i.e., as a consequence of one’s actions); the latter stresses the nature of the punishment (i.e., death). Both expressions designate th... see more

Utilitarianism (See Consequentialism)

Utilitarianism refers to a philosophical theory that is particularly important in sociopolitical and moral thought and is characterized by the primacy of the consequentialist principle of utility in which good and bad are determined, respectively, by the degree of happiness (pleasure and the absence... see more

Emergency Medicine (See Triage)

Emergency medicine (EM) is a medical specialty defined by the International Federation for Emergency Medicine in 1991 as “a field of practice based on the knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and management of acute and urgent aspects of illness and injury affecting patients o... see more

Commons (See Common Heritage of Humankind)

Commons are shared domains, materials, products, resources, and services. They are oriented toward the future unlike the notion of common heritage that refers to the past and to historical traditions.

Bioinvasion (See Invasive Species)

Bioinvasion has been regarded as a major threat to biodiversity especially since the 1990s. Bioinvasion is the introduction and spread (intentional or accidental) of non-native species outside their natural past or present ranges that causes the extinction of native species and changes existing ecos... see more

Genetic Modification (GMOs), Plants

Plants have long been genetically modified via traditional crop techniques or via selection by humans with the aim of increasing the production of naturally occurring variations of plants that show desirable traits (e.g., sweet corn).

Palliative Care (See Hospice; Palliative Sedation)

Palliative care was defined by the WHO in 1990 as “the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment.” A broader and now commonly used definition is the one proposed by the WHO in 2002: “Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patient... see more

Hospice (See Palliative Care)

Hospices are places usually outside the hospital context where palliative care is provided. In 1967 Cecily Saunders established St Christopher’s Hospice in the United Kingdom as the first specialized facility for care of the terminally ill.

Integrity, Research (See Research Ethics; Integrity)

Research integrity refers to sets of ethical principles that must be respected such that good scientific practice and sound and trustworthy science can be assured. Historically, awareness of the importance of research integrity only developed as a consequence of scandals in the scientific community.

Transhumanism (See Enhancement; Transplantation; Genetic Engineering)

Transhumanism refers to a philosophical movement that believes the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations such as ageing, susceptibility to disease, and proneness to disabilities by means of science and technology. It also calls for strong investment in new biotechn... see more

Brain Drain (See Care Drain)

One of the phenomena brought about by globalization is the brain drain, which entails skilled health professionals from developing countries moving to the developed world.

Standards of Care (See Double Standards)

Standards of care are used to define appropriate treatments and preventive activities in clinical healthcare irrespective of whether they are new or established. They are usually determined by the medical profession and promulgated through guidelines based on scientific evidence.

Declaration of Istanbul (See Trafficking; Organ Transplantation)

Basic social and economic needs that are not met can result in health problems that cannot be addressed without the involvement of civil society. Although healthcare services are not discrete interventions in themselves, they demand a systemic approach guided by local knowledge. The Declaration of I... see more

Deep Ecology (See Ecocentrism; Environmentalism)

Deep ecology refers to a radical environmental movement that emerged in the mid-1970s.

Biopiracy (See Bioprospecting)

Bioprospecting has long been commonly carried out without any concern for benefit sharing with source countries and indigenous populations. From the perspective of developing countries and environmental NGOs it is a kind of theft in which resource extraction is unfair much as it had been in earlier ... see more

Pre-approval Access (See Compassionate Use; Right to Try)

Access to investigational medicines prior to approval is called “pre-approval access” (a.k.a. expanded use).

Vegetarianism (See Animal Ethics; Animal Welfare; Zoocentrism)

Vegetarianism refers to the practice of voluntarily abstaining from eating animal flesh. Such a practice can be broken down into a number of categories such as semi-vegetarianism or flexitarianism (in which no meat is consumed although occasionally red meat or poultry are); vegetarianism strictu sen... see more

Moral Diversity (See Diversity)

Moral diversity is an empirical reality in democratic societies where all people are free to have their own beliefs, values, and principles. Such diversity has its roots in different religions, cultures, ideologies, and upbringings. Although moral diversity has been said to lead to divisiveness and ... see more

Neonatology (See Pediatrics)

Neonatology is a specialized field of medicine focused on the care and treatment of newborn babies and is considered a subspecialty of pediatrics in most countries. Patients include preterm babies born prematurely, term babies with serious conditions acquired during pregnancy or labor, and babies wi... see more

Compassionate Use (See Pre-approval Access; Right to Try)

Compassionate (or expanded) use is the same as pre-approval access and the right to try both of which refer to access to medication that is not yet approved for use in medical practice.

Genetic Modification (GMOs), General

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are those whose genetic material has been altered via genetic engineering such as molecular cloning, recombinant DNA technology, gene delivery in which the three Ts (transformation, transfection, and transduction) are used to introduce foreign DNA, and gene edit... see more

Anthropocentrism (See Biocentrism; Ecocentrism; Zoocentrism)

The word “anthropocentrism” derives etymologically from the Greek words anthropos (human) and kentron (center) and is used to classify systems or perspectives centered on the human, on humankind. The Greek suffix -ismós (Latin -ismus) expresses the general scope of the word to which it is added. Thu... see more

Organ Transplantation (See Transplantation Medicine)

See for this entry under Transplantation medicine

Advance Directive (See Advance Care Planning; Living Will)

Advance directives are written documents that specify the medical preferences of competent people. They are prepared to provide instructions for future treatment in case such people become incompetent. There are two types of advance directives: living wills that specify the preferred treatment optio... see more

Family Planning (See Fertility Control)

Family planning refers to taking control over pregnancy involving contraception and reproductive technologies in an attempt to help parents decide how many children to have and when to have them (family planning).

Triage (See Emergency Medicine)

Triage refers to selecting people for treatment from a larger group of people all of whom are in need of treatment. Triage is used when events such as war, terrorist attacks, or disasters cause so many casualties that healthcare resources are too limited to treat everyone. The word “triage” derives ... see more

Consequentialism (See Utilitarianism)

Consequentialism refers to a specific orientation in moral philosophy: a result-based perspective that evaluates the morality of an action according to the results it produces.

Patenting (See Ownership; Property Rights)

A patent is a license conferring a right on someone or some other party for a set period of time (generally 20 years) that prevents others from making, using, or selling an invention. In other words, it is a form of intellectual property giving exclusive control and possession to a particular indivi... see more

Safety (See Biosafety)

Safety refers to the condition in which someone is protected from (potential) harm, danger, risk, or injury.

Substance Abuse (See Addiction)

Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of addictive substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs. Using psychoactive substances can lead to dependence syndrome, which presents as a cluster of cognitive, physiological, and psychological symptoms that develop after repeated u... see more

Environmental Ethics (See Ecocentrism)

Environmental ethics is a recent branch of moral philosophy that has been systematically developed since the 1970s. It is concerned with the moral relationship between human beings and nature and considers the value and moral status of living beings, ecosystems, and the biosphere.

HIV (See AIDS)

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) alters the immune system by specifically targeting CD4 immune cells (white-blood T-helper cells that detect infections and cell anomalies).

Sports (See Doping)

Bioethical issues regarding sport are primarily related to doping.

Authenticity (See Altruism)

The concept of authenticity derives from the Latin authenticus and the Greek authentikos that translate as the quality of what is real, true, genuine, and original. It is a common word in many different fields such as legal affairs and psychology (mainly in existential philosophy where it can assume... see more

Diversity (See Biodiversity; Cultural Diversity)

Diversity refers to the notion that individuals are different and unique as a consequence of the race, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and religious and political beliefs of human beings not being the same.

Pediatrics (See Neonatology; Children and Ethics)

Pediatrics is a medical specialty involving the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. The first medical textbook on diseases of children was published in 1764 and the first pediatric hospital was established in Paris in 1802.

Research (See Clinical Research; Research Ethics)

Research refers to the detailed, meticulous, systematic, and thorough study of a specific object and has the aim of discovering new information or confirming a hypothesis or interpretation by describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling the object observed.

Moral Theories (See Deontology; Moral Theory)

Moral theories refer to a set of normative rules formulated to guide human action, to do good and avoid bad, to do what is right and reject what is wrong, and rationally justifying such rules. Throughout history there have been many different moral theories (i.e., coherent systems of concepts, metho... see more

QALY (See Quality of Life)

QALY stands for quality-adjusted life year and is a unit of measurement used to determine a patient’s health-related quality of life and the length of life expected to be lived and at the same time to assess the utility of a specific clinical treatment for a concrete disease in that patient.

Media Ethics (See Communication, Media)

Media ethics refers to the role media play in society and to the procedural standards they follow. Since it is a branch of applied ethics it reflects the citizen’s perspective—not just that of the professional (as is the case with professional ethics). It is the general public (i.e., those potential... see more

Property Rights (See Ownership; Patenting)

Property rights refer to the ownership of resources and their use.

Right to Try (See Compassionate Use; Pre-approval Access)

Right to try is the name given to legislation in the United States that allows terminally ill patients to use experimental drugs that are not yet approved by the FDA. Although 40 US states have today introduced right-to-try laws, such legislation was unanimously adopted at the federal level and sign... see more

Altruism (See Authenticity)

The concept of altruism derives from the Latin term alter meaning “other.” It refers to a perspective centered on the other as opposed to one centered on the “I.” It was in its opposition to (the Hobbesian) individual selfishness that the philosopher August Comte introduced the notion of altruism to... see more

Advance Care Planning (See Advance Directive)

Advance care planning (ACP) (a.k.a. end-of-life care) is the process in which patients discuss their goals and preferences for future treatment and care with their relatives and healthcare providers. This process is important since patients may receive treatments such as resuscitation that they pref... see more

Fertility Control (See Birth Control; Contraception)

Fertility control refers to the power humankind has acquired but is constantly growing to make decisions concerning reproduction rather than leaving it to nature or human biology.

Bioterrorism (See Biosecurity)

Bioterrorism involves the intentional release of biological agents such as the anthrax letters sent in late September 2001 in the United States. Five letters with powder containing weaponized anthrax spores were mailed and made 22 people ill, 5 of whom died. Although it was long assumed that foreign... see more

Research Ethics, Integrity (See Integrity)

Research ethics refers to the (theoretical) principles and norms (guidelines) that regulate (the practice of) research.

Weapons (See Biological Weapons)

Weapons have long been the focus of ethical discourse since a long time. In 1096 Pope Urban II prohibited the use of crossbows introduced from China in 1096 and Pope Innocent II repeating the prohibition in 1139 both without any real effect. New weapons have long been regarded as inhuman and unfair ... see more

Experimentation (See Research Ethics)

Experimentation is the use of experiments to examine, test, and validate theories and hypotheses and is usually contrasted with observation. Experiments involving control groups are compared with other groups who have undergone some form of experimental intervention in which the most often used meth... see more

Institutional Review Boards (See Research Ethics; Research Ethics Committees)

Institutional review boards (IRBs) are biomedical or clinical research ethics committees whose job is to decide whether clinical research should be approved or not. They were first established as legal entities in 1974.

Biocentrism (See Anthropocentrism; Ecocentrism; Environmental Ethics; Zoocentrism)

The word “biocentrism” derives etymologically from two Greek words bios (life) and kentron (center) and designates a perspective centered on all forms of life—animals, plants, and microorganisms—regardless of their particular characteristics such as sentience or the capacity to experience sensations... see more

Palliative Sedation (See Palliative Care)

Sedation is employed in palliative care in varying ways and has resulted in different terminology being used such as terminal sedation and deep sedation and making the concept ever vaguer. Since the goal of sedation is to relieve refractory suffering by reducing consciousness, it is therefore an opt... see more

Food Security (See Hunger; Food Ethics)

Food security and food safety are two interrelated societal issues. Food safety refers to safe sources of food for human consumption that are free from chemical or microbial contamination and are properly stored (cold chain when needed), transported, labeled, prepared, processed, and cooked.

Biosafety (See Biosecurity)

Biosafety is the discipline covering the safe handling and containment of infectious microorganisms and hazardous biological materials. Many laboratories today work with pathogenic organisms and their toxins. Military biological research laboratories, particularly in the United States and the Russia... see more

Freedom (of Speech)

Freedom of speech (more broadly, freedom of expression) is the right individuals have to express their opinions publicly without fearing consequences. Such a right is established in the Declaration of Human Rights.

Health Tourism (See Medical Tourism)

Although health tourism is basically the same as medical tourism, it has a broader meaning. It not only applies to medical interventions but also to a variety of interventions and applications aimed at maintaining and restoring health. Wellness tourism (a.k.a. health tourism) is a proactive form of ... see more

Neurotechnology (See Neuroethics)

Advanced techniques and technologies are readily available today to assess, access, and examine the structures and functions of the brain. In 2013 the European Union initiated the Human Brain Project and the United States initiated Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN... see more

Addiction (See Substance Abuse)

Addiction is considered a condition in which an individual is unable psychologically and physically to stop consuming a chemical, drug, or substance or engaging in an activity, although it is causing psychological and physical harm. Addiction can refer to dependence on substances such as cocaine or ... see more

BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy)

Food security has become a major concern for global bioethics. Most food is no longer grown by individual people, but mass-produced by large agrobusinesses.

Death, Criteria (See Brain Death)

Throughout the ages up to relatively recently the criterion used to determine death has been roughly the same worldwide: the cessation of breathing.

Invasive Species (See Bioinvasion)

An invasive species is any organism that is not native to an ecosystem and is believed to harm it. Bioinvasion (a.k.a. biological exchange, species transfer, relocating or transplanting life) was first regarded as a major threat to biodiversity in the 1990s.

Genetic Modification (GMOs), Animals

Animals have long been genetically modified via traditional breeding techniques or via selection by humans where the aim is to increase the production (and reproduction) of naturally occurring variations of specimens that show desirable traits.

Genome Editing (See Gene Editing; CRISPR)

Genome editing (a.k.a. gene editing) refers to deliberately modifying DNA by insertion, deletion, or replacement of a gene at a specific site in the genome of an organism or cell. Rapid innovation in genome-editing technology has led to the advent of a number of methods.

In Vitro Fertilization (See Assisted Reproductive Technology)

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is an assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedure consisting in artificial retrieval of sperm and oocytes (via masturbation and suction, respectively), treatment and selection of gametes, placing sperm and oocytes together in a petri dish, waiting for fusion to happ... see more

Life, Quality of (See Quality of Life; QALY)

Quality of life is a highly controversial concept as a result of being confused with other closely related concepts such as health and well-being and by being perceived differently throughout history, during someone’s own lifetime, or according to culture. Although the consensual indicators used to ... see more

Bioprospecting (See Biopiracy)

Bioprospecting is the systematic search for biological and genetic resources in plants, animals, and microorganisms in the wild. The basic idea is that such a search will potentially deliver genes and chemical products that will benefit humanity, especially by delivering pharmaceuticals. Many pharma... see more

Disability (See Ableism)

Disability is a complicated notion. The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a person with a disability as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more everyday activities.

Institutional Ethics (See Organizational Ethics)

Institutional ethics (a.k.a. organizational ethics) refers to the application of ethics in such institutions as hospitals, professional organizations, and corporations. It regards institutions as moral agents with responsibilities and accountability.

Living Will (See Advance Directive)

A living will is a formal document in which someone can freely state his or her own wishes concerning healthcare regarding a future situation in which that person is no longer competent or able to give consent. A living will is an advance directive that extends the principle of autonomy to those who... see more

Gene Editing (See Genome Editing; CRISPR)

This entry is discussed under Genome editing.

AIDS (See HIV)

AIDS is acquired immune deficiency syndrome. It is the result of infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is the last stage of HIV infection and will lead to death if not treated. After infection it can take 2–15 years to develop. The infection destroys the immune system. When AIDS occu... see more

Double Standards (See Standards of Care)

Double standards refer to the application of different principles to situations that are essentially the same.

Organ Donation (See Donation, Organs)

See for this entry under Donation

Clinical Ethics, Teaching (See Bioethics Education)

Teaching ethics in the clinical setting is a specialized form of bioethics education.

Biosecurity (See Biosafety; Bioterrorism)

The term “biosecurity” was initially used to protect agriculture, livestock, and the environment against invasive species and diseases. Human health was later included when infectious diseases were regarded as security threats. The term has been widely used since the War on Terror to focus on concer... see more

Biological Weapons (See Biosecurity; Dual Use; Weapons)

Soon after the terrorist attacks in the United States five letters containing weaponized anthrax spores were mailed (late September 2001). They made 22 people ill, 5 of whom died. The FBI investigation took a long time since the assumption was that foreign terrorists or governments were responsible.... see more

Organ Trade (See Trafficking; Declaration of Istanbul)

The organ trade involves the selling and buying of human organs and reducing them to goods or merchandise subject to laws of the market such as supply and demand. It is the overwhelming need for life-saving organs combined with their scarcity that trigger and foster the organ trade. Although organs ... see more

Clinical Research (See Research; Research Ethics)

Reliable information about medication, treatments, and devices is generated by means of clinical research.

Aesthetic Medicine (See Cosmetic Surgery)

Aesthetic medicine reflects a new trend in medicine. It is the application of medical procedures to improve the physical appearance of patients to their satisfaction. It uses non-invasive or minimally invasive cosmetic procedures. The patients concerned are not suffering any illness and are usually ... see more

Harm (See Benefits and Harms)

In bioethical discourse the term “harm” is often used as the opposite of benefit. Since Hippocratic times a basic ethical principle of medical ethics has been primum non nocere (first do no harm).

Freedom (of Treatment)

Future generations is the term used to refer to the next and subsequent generations of humans. Whatever context it is used in it acknowledges that those who do not yet exist matter today and that present generations who are now living have an obligation to think and act not only for themselves, but ... see more

Religion and Bioethics (See Bioethics and Religion)

When bioethics emerged as a new discipline in the 1970s, it was strongly connected to religion.

Bioethics and Religion (See Religion and Bioethics)

When bioethics first appeared many practitioners of the new discipline were theologians and religious scholars. The original core of the bioethical literature was produced by philosophers and theologians. Both disciplines were associated with broad and critical perspectives on relevant moral challen... see more

Good Death (See Death, Concept)

The expression “good death” derives etymologically from the Greek euthanatos (eu = good and thanatos = death) and is commonly used synonymously with and euphemistically for the current concept of euthanasia.

War (See Military Ethics)

Throughout history war has been a subject of ethical debate raising such questions as: Can war be morally justified? What are the moral rules that apply to warfare? When is war justified? This debate has led to a substantial body of just war theory. The rules of war can be broken down into two moral... see more

Research Ethics, Interspecies (See Chimera)

Interspecies research (ISR) refers to the production of a new being called an interspecies chimera in biomedical research.

Animal Ethics (See Animal Welfare; Animal Rights; Animal Research; Vegetarianism; Zoocentrism)

Animal ethics broadly refers to ethical theories and to moral and legal practices concerning the relationships that humans ought to have toward animals. It is a growing field that covers many different human activities involving animals mainly at the scientific, industrial, and utilitarian level. An... see more

Care Ethics (See Chronic Illness and Care)

Care ethics is a moral theory or moral approach that values human relationships and the supportive network they build. It is motivated by the willingness to care for others that is basic to human existence, especially for those in vulnerable situations, and promotes an overall feeling of well-being.

Neoliberalism (See Globalization)

Neoliberalism is the dominant ideology of globalization. It is a conglomerate of ideas focused on promoting the free market such as competition, privatization, deregulation, reduction of public expenditure, tax reform, and protection of property rights. According to such an ideology globalization is... see more

Anticommons (See Commons)

Globalization has reactivated the interest in commons. Commons are shared domains, materials, products, resources, and services that have played a central role in the history of humankind. The Commission on Global Governance in 1995 discussed global commons as an opportunity—not as a tragedy. They a... see more

Capacity Building (See Capacity)

The application and implementation of bioethics presupposes that appropriate capacities exist.

Bioethics, Environmental (See Environmental Ethics)

In Potter’s distinction between medical and environmental (or ecological) bioethics the last form of bioethics is concerned with the survival of humanity. It concentrates on responsibilities toward future generations and takes a long-term view associated with the preservation of biodiversity and eco... see more

Brain Death (See Death)

Most countries now require brain death to be determined before organs can be removed from patients for postmortem organ donation.

Research Ethics, Research Ethics Committees (See Institutional Review Boards)

The historical origin of research ethics committees (RECs) can be traced back to the 1970s when it became increasingly clear that biomedical research needed some form of monitoring.

Communication, Media (See Media Ethics)

The term communication media refers to the means or systems of receiving, storing, and transmitting information or data. Media is the plural of the Latin word medium (mediating tool) that designates an intermediate element.

Children and Research (See Pediatrics)

The first regulations established for medical research involving children were intended to protect children from such research (like the Nuremberg Code).

Doping (See Sports)

Doping refers to the illicit use of drugs to enhance both performance in sports and the ability of athletes to win. Such a practice is of course contrary to the spirit of sports and can endanger the health of athletes.

Clinical Trials (See Research Ethics; Clinical Research)

Clinical trials are scientific research projects involving human subjects.

Military Ethics (See War)

Military ethics refers to ethical standards or behavior considered right, appropriate, and desirable in the military setting. It is a branch of applied ethics primarily practiced in military academies and universities. Although the bioethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and... see more

Cosmetic Surgery (See Aesthetic Medicine)

Cosmetic surgery differs from aesthetic medicine in that it is solely focused on surgery for aesthetic purposes, whereas aesthetic medicine involves both surgical and non-surgical procedures.

Freedom (of the Press)

Freedom of the press refers to the media being allowed to publish whatever contents it considers pertinent to the public interest without suffering any kind of censorship or fearing any kind of coercion or reprisal by the state or individuals.

Care Drain (See Brain Drain)

The care drain is a similar phenomenon to the brain drain. It is primarily focused on care workers and nurses. One reason for the care drain is the rapidly ageing population of many developed countries. This has created shortages of care workers not just for the elderly but also for the disabled, th... see more

Ownership (See Patenting; Property Rights)

Ownership refers to having the exclusive right and control over some form of property. There can be different types of owners such as individuals, states, corporations, and organizations; different models of ownership such as private, public, collective, and common; and different types of property s... see more

Capacity (See Capability; Capacity Building; Competence)

Capacity generally refers to the maximum amount of something such as material goods that can be accommodated in a particular container

Regulation (EU) on Clinical Trials

The European Union regulated clinical trials long before the most recent regulation entered into force (2014)

Research Ethics, Animal (See Animal Research)

Animals have been used in scientific research since ancient times.

CRISPR (See Genomic Editing; Gene Editing)

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) is one of the most recent gene-editing technologies.

Animal Welfare (See Animal Ethics; Animal Research; Animal Rights)

Animal welfare refers to the quality of life of animals that humans relate to and have moral obligations. The state of an animal’s welfare indicates how the animal is coping (physiologically, behaviorally, cognitively, and emotionally) with the conditions in which it lives. The requisite quality of ... see more

Zoocentrism (See Animal Ethics; Anthropocentrism; Biocentrism; Ecocentrism)

The word “zoocentrism” derives etymologically from the Greek zoon (animal) and kentron (center). The Greek suffix -ismós (Latin -ismus) expresses the general scope of the word to which it is added. Zoocentrism refers to the different doctrines that consider animals as having moral worth, regard anim... see more

Informed Consent (See Consent)

See under the entry Consent.

Global Justice (See Justice)

Global justice refers to applying the principle of justice to global bioethics. There are a number of reasons global justice has become a normative tool in global bioethics: globalization is associated with increasing inequality and inequity; globalization has not led to a world that has a level pla... see more

Data Sharing (See Research Ethics, Data Sharing; Virus Sharing)

The idea of commons has been rehabilitated in today’s global bioethics and used to redefine the public domain.

Applied ethics	Epistemology	History of Western Philosophy	Meta-ethics	Metaphysics	Normative ethics
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Dictionary of Global Bioethics

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