Biomedical Ethics: An Introduction

Biomedical Ethics is also known as bioethics. It is a sub-section of ethics and in fact a part of applied ethics that uses ethical principles and decision making to solve actual or anticipated dilemmas in philosophy, medicine and biology. Ethics seeks to find reasoned, consistent, and defensible solutions to moral problems while bioethical reasoning is primarily case based. Much like clinical practice that relies on both general rules and case-based experiences, bioethical reasoning relies on learned and accepted moral rules, prior bioethical decisions derived from thoughtful reflection, and recognition of unique factors in individual situations that differentiate one case from another. This method of case-based reasoning is termed casuistry, although physicians may better know it as clinical reasoning. When clinicians think of bioethics, they often think either of the legal bases for their actions both prescriptive and proscriptive or their religious background. Neither directly applies. Rather, clinicians are obligated to make patient-centered, value-driven ethical decisions.