Improvements in our ability to analyze and understand DNA will have ethical implications for society. The most important issue stem from DNA’s ability to predict an individual’s future, during his or her life, at birth, as a fetus, as an in vitro embryo, or even before conception. There will also be ramifications for health care, in establishing identity, in revealing the past, through genetic ...

This paper considers the ethical issues raised by xenotransplantation under four headings: interfering with nature; effects on the recipient; effects on other humans; and effects on donor animals. The first two issues raise no insuperable problems: charges of unnaturalness are misguided, and the risks that xenotransplantation carries for the recipient are a matter for properly informed consent....

The marketing of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the psychopharmacological industry presents a serious moral problem for the corporate model of medicine. In this paper I examine ethical issues relating to the efficacy and safety of these drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have a moral obligation to disclose all information in their possession bearing on the true risks and benefits of th...

The way we regulate food and agricultural systems is inherently of ethical concern. Thus, we are dealing with issues relevant to moral philosophy. Agricultural ethics is an emerging discipline which is principally concerned with topics involving public policy. Agriculture – ethical approaches contrasts the traditional concept of moral philosophy and applied ethics. When we try to face specific ...

The Winter 2011 special issue of the Journal of Physical Therapy Education reminds us how assistive technologies have helped patients with disabilities gain more independence and improve quality of life. Assistive technology (AT) is defined as “devices and product systems that assist persons with disabilities with the performance of therapy, daily tasks, and activities”1(p59) (see Appendix for ...