The blossoming of bioethics at NIH

The establishment of the Department of Clinical Bioethics at the Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has coincided with a burgeoning of interest and activity related to bioethical issues at NIH. The department has precipitated a reexamination and revitalization of existing bioethics activities in the Clinical Center and has launched new programs especially in the areas of education and research. In addition, the department contributes to the work of others throughout NIH who address bioethical issues.     

(My) spirituality in medical education

During these times of the situated, contingent text, it is not unusual for an author to disclose her biases and other sources of potential partiality as a researcher or theorist. That is, an author often discloses her race, class origins, or sexual orientation at the onset, announcing particularities that enable readers to adjust their reading to the subjectivities inherent to knowledge production. One glaring omission to these announcements, especially in medicine, has to do with the spiritual domain. This essay, written as a personal narrative, provides one example of how one's spirituality is connected to what and how one chooses to teach, even in the medical academy. Acknowledging those beliefs and considering how our spirituality (along with our other subjectivities that are known to us) may influence our work is an important process in developing a more reflective practice.     

A proposal for teaching bioethics in high schools using appropriate visual education tools

Teaching bioethics with visual education tools, such as movies and comics, is a unique way of explaining the history and progress of human research and the art and science of medicine to high school students. For more than a decade, bioethical concepts have appeared in movies, and these films are useful for teaching medical and research ethics in high schools. Using visual tools to teach bioethics can have both interpretational and transformational effects on learners that will enhance their overall understanding of complex moral and legal issues in medicine and research.High school students are uniquely suited to learn bioethics because they will soon become legal adults. As adults, they will make moral decisions that may affect their health and wellbeing as well as that of their communities and societies.However, not all visual education tools are appropriate for bioethics pedagogy in high school. Bioethics film and comic producers must consider the specifics of student age, race, gender, belief, level of education, and sexual orientation. Such tools must not be dominated by either dystopic or utopic genres, must aim for objectivity, and must consider the complexity of ethical decision making. It is critical that the teacher, who is the final arbiter regarding the use of visual tools in the classroom, determines that the visual learning tool is acceptable for students in any particular education context. In addition, during the conceptualization and creation of these tools, bioethics film and comic producers must work harder to ensure that these visual tools are devoid of any form of stereotyping.     

Baiting bioethics

Various criticisms of bioethics are reported and evaluated in an effort to determine what it is reasonable to expect of this rapidly developing field and what should be its future directions. Specific charges by Renée Fox, Judith Swazey, and William Bennett are explored. Fox and Swazey contend that bioethics champions individualism and pays little attention to social relationships, that bioethicists distance themselves from the human settings where ethical issues are experienced, and that bioethics pretends to a false validity. Bennett indicts bioethics on the grounds that it promotes ethical relativism and moral indifference. Gorovitz argues the case against these contentions but urges ethicists systematically to assess their critics' statements.     

Post-Christian bioethics

Agreeing in large part with Cameron, Robert D. Orr nonetheless raises some questions. He points out the theological origins of bioethics in the 1960s, while admitting that the field has since become secularized. Autonomy's challenge to Hippocratic paternalism has brought real benefits but also abuses. Bioethics addresses more than procedural matters; it deals in issues of real substance.