We would like to thank P.J.P. Poels, D.P.A. Schellekens and T.R. Schermer for the interest shown in our recent paper [1] and for their comments. It is clear that we all agree that primary-care spirometry is important, albeit currently underused. However, we are unable to concur with one of the basic assumptions of the correspondents, namely that spirometry will automatically lead to improvement...

Livestock and poultry producers face a number of challenges including pressure from the public to be good environmental stewards and adopt welfare-friendly practices. In response, producers often implement practices beyond those required for regulatory compliance to meet consumer demands. However, environmental stewardship and animal welfare may have conflicting objectives. Examples include pas...

This paper describes and discusses how IT related decisions are intimately linked to ethical issues . Based on a Case Study undertaken at a large public sector organisation, software usage and organisational processes were examined in order to uncover underlying values and social control issues embedded in ́technical solutions ́.

Two recent events have caused renewed anxiety concerning the ethics of donor transplantation. The first is the report of the British Transplantation Society and the second is the Bill introduced by Mr Tam Dalyell MP (see page 6i of this issue) in which he seeks to establish by law that unless an individual in his life time has expressly contracted out his organs may after death be used for tran...

Screening and monitoring activities have their place in the prevention of workplace and environmental disease and injury. Testing, while still relatively nonspecific at this time, can be appropriately used in such prevention activities. Unfortunately, such information can be misused or even put to malevolent purpose, and this complicates the moral and ethical aspects of such testing. With advan...

Tissue engineering (TE) is a promising new field of medical technology. However, like other new technologies, it is not free of ethical challenges. Identifying these ethical questions at an early stage is not only part of science's responsibility toward society, but also in the interest of the field itself. In this review, we map which ethical issues related to TE have already been documented i...

Decisions about withdrawing and withholding treatment are common in health care. During almost every encounter between health professionals and patients a decision needs to be made about treatment options. In most cases these choices do not pose any difficulty, for example, starting antibiotics when a patient has an infection. However, decisions not to treat, or to stop treating, raise fundamen...

Many writers, indeed, had laid down definite rules to guide our conduct towards domesticated animals, but these generally expressed a sense of duty towards their owners rather than towards the creatures themselves. In the case of Christian teachers, this omission of a sense of duty towards animals was partly based on the manner in which St. Paul interpreted the precept, " Thou shalt not muzzle ...

The Ethics Committee’s Mandate 1. Starting point and principles 1.1. Brief description of “Terminator” technology 1.2. Patenting 1.3. State of knowledge 1.4. State of the international discussion 2. Elements of the ethical evaluation 2.1. Research and economic aspects 2.2. Social aspects 2.3. Ecological aspects 2.4. Aspects of the dignity of creation 2.5. Impact of patenting “Terminator” techno...