Objective to revise medical ethics.

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Medical Ethics

• Objective to revise medical ethics.

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What did we cover?
Medical Ethics Questions of morality that are
raised by medical situations.
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Medical Ethics
Religion and medical ethics Religion and medical ethics
Attitudes to abortion Different attitudes towards abortion Reasons for different attitudes
Attitudes to fertility treatment Responses to issues raised by fertility treatment and cloning
Attitudes to euthanasia and suicide Different attitudes towards euthanasia Different attitudes towards suicide Reasons for different attitudes
Using animals in medical research Beliefs about the use of animals in medical research
Revision note making use different coloured pens
(i.e. Bible teaching, roman catholic, liberal
protestant) create sub titles, use little
pictures and use bullet points.
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Ethics 1 MEDICAL ETHICSexamples of question
you could get.

• 1 mark
• What does Abortion mean?
• What does euthanasia mean?
• What does sanctity of life mean?
• (b) 2 marks
• Describe what is meant by cloning.
• Give two reasons which might lead a person to
  commit suicide.
• (c) 3 marks
• Give three statements explaining what you
  understand by euthanasia.
• Describe the attitude of some Christians towards
  sex before marriage.
• Describe the attitude of some Christians towards
  suicide.

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Ethics 1 MEDICAL ETHICSexamples of question
you could get.

• (d) 6 marks
• Explain Christian views about abortion.
• Explain Christian views about fertility
  treatment.
• Explain Christian views about suicide.
• Explain the attitude of some Christians to
  helping a terminally ill person to die.
• e) 12 marks Discuss this statement. You should
  include different, supported points of views and
  a personal viewpoint. You must refer to
  Christianity in your answer.
• Euthanasia should never be allowed.
• Animals can be used in medical research, because
  humans are more important than animals.
• Only God has the right to take life.
• God created all life so only god should take it
  away
• Abortion is always wrong

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Key words Definitions
Abortion Deliberate termination of pregnancy by removal and destruction of the foetus.
AID Artificial insemination by donor.
AIH Artificial insemination by husband.
Clone An individual organism or cell produced asexually from one ancestor to which they are genetically identical.
Denomination A branch of Christianity different types of Christians.
Embryo A foetus before it is 4 months old.
Euthanasia When someone is helped to die without pain before they would have died naturally.
Fertility treatment Medical treatment to help a woman become pregnant.
Genetic engineering The deliberate modification of the characteristics of an organism by manipulating its genetic material.
IVF In vitro fertilisation. The egg and the sperm being brought together in a test tube.
Medical ethics Questions of morality that are raised by medical situations.
Sacred Holy, having something of God or the divine.
Sanctity of life The belief that all life is given by God and is therefore sacred.
Suicide Deliberately ending ones own life.
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Top Bible Quotations to use in Medical Ethics!

• Bible bits
• Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,
  and let them rule over the fish of the sea and
  the birds of the air,.. (Genesis)
• God made man in his own image
• (Genesis 126-27)
• God gives Adam the breath of life.
• (Genesis 27)
• Do not murder. (Exodus 2013)
• God is responsible for the giving and taking of
  life (Job 121)
• the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
• (1 Corinthians 31617)

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Medical Ethics

• Sanctity of life
• Christians often say that they believe in the
  sanctity of life. They mean that they believe
  there is something special and holy about human
  life.
• For Christians, human life is different from
  other kinds of life, because people share
  something of the nature of God.
• The book of Genesis describes how God made Adam,
  and then breathed into his nostrils the breath
  of life. Christians regard this as the giving
  of the soul. Genesis also says that people are
  made in the image of God.

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• Christians believe that each person has a soul,
  which does not die when the body and the mind
  die, but lives on after death. It is the soul
  that is judged by God, and which can join God in
  heaven for ever.
• The Bible also teaches that God plans each human
  life.
• Christians believe that they should treat all
  human life with respect.
• Because Christians believe that God has given
  their lives to them, they think that they have a
  responsibility to take care of themselves and of
  others.
• Key words Sanctity of life the belief that
  there is something special or holy about life.
• Soul the non-physical part of a person which may
  go to heaven when the person dies.
• Bible bits
• God made man in his own image (Genesis 126-27)
• God gives Adam the breath of life. (Genesis
  27)
• Do not murder. (Exodus 2013)
• God is responsible for the giving and taking of
  life (Job 121)
• the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1
  Corinthians 31617)

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• Attitudes to abortion
• An abortion is when a foetus is expelled from its
  mothers uterus before the pregnancy reaches
  full term (usually 40 weeks). Sometimes this
  happens naturally and is called a miscarriage,
  or a spontaneous abortion. However, abortion
  usually means procured abortion when the foetus
  is removed deliberately.
• Roman Catholics believe that life begins from the
  moment of conception, on the very first day of
  pregnancy. Some other Christians believe that
  the foetus cannot really be described as a person
  until later in the pregnancy, when it becomes
  more recognisably human. Others believe that it
  becomes a person when it is capable of surviving
  on its own, at about 22 weeks.

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• Roman Catholics believe that the killing of an
  unborn baby is morally wrong in all
  circumstances. However, if abortion is needed to
  save the mothers life, such as in the case of an
  ectopic pregnancy, they would accept the doctrine
  of double effect. This says that if something
  morally good has a morally bad side-effect, it is
  right to do it providing the bad side-effect was
  not intended even though it was known.
• The Church of England also opposes abortion but
  recognises that there can be certain conditions
  when abortion would be morally acceptable such as
  the child would experience a low quality of life
  due to severe medical disabilities, or in the
  case of rape.

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• The Methodist Church says that abortion is always
  an evil but recognises that there are cases where
  abortion may be the lesser of two evils if the
  child would be born with an incurable disease for
  example.
• Some Christians are more willing to accept early
  abortions than those which take place later in a
  pregnancy.
• Bible bits
• Do not murder (Exodus 2013)
• God creates people in the womb (Psalm 139 13-16)

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• 3. Christian attitudes to fertility treatment
• Fertility treatment is used when people want to
  have children but are unable to conceive
  naturally. Usually, this is because of some kind
  of medical problem. However, there are different
  Christian attitudes to fertility treatment.
• IVF (in vitro fertilisation) involves the egg and
  the sperm being brought together in a test tube.
  If conception takes place and an embryo is
  formed, it is placed inside the womans uterus.
• Another method of fertility treatment is
  artificial insemination. Sperm is collected and
  placed in the womans uterus artificially
• Sometimes, this is the husbands sperm AIH
  (artificial insemination by husband).
• Sometimes sperm can be used which may come from
  an anonymous donor AID (artificial insemination
  by donor). The law now states that anyone
  donating sperm or eggs has to provide their
  details, so that at the age of eighteen a person
  conceived in this way can seek out their
  biological parents.

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• Roman Catholics believe life begins at
  conception. This causes a major problem with
  fertility treatment (such as IVF) which can
  produce spare embryos. Some of these embryos may
  be thrown away during the process, stored or used
  in medical research, which they believe goes
  against the sixth commandment.
• The Roman Catholic Church does not believe that
  having a baby is a God-given right but rather a
  divine gift.
• Also the Roman Catholic Church is opposed to AID
  because they think that the introduction of a
  third party is a form of adultery.
• Key person Hannah Old Testament figure who
  could not have children for many years because
  God had closed her womb.
• Bible Bits
• God made humans in his own image (Genesis
  126-27)
• God will not allow Hannah to have a baby until he
  decides it is the right time (1 Samuel 15)

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• The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990
• Frozen embryos may be stored for a maximum of ten
  years.
• However, these can only be implanted and used if
  both partners agree.
• Scientific experiments may only be carried out on
  embryos up until fourteen days after conception
  after this time they may not be kept alive.
• Some Christians believe that fertility treatments
  should be encouraged because they bring so much
  happiness to people who would otherwise not be
  able to have children.
• Other Christians believe that fertility treatment
  is wrong. They consider that God chooses whether
  people have babies or not. This is part of the
  teaching about sanctity of life.

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• Christian attitudes to cloning
• Cloning creates a genetically identical animal or
  plant from another.
• The most famous example of a cloned animal was
  Dolly the sheep (1997-2003).
• Plants are often cloned when someone takes a
  cutting and grows another plant from it, they are
  producing a clone.
• Human identical twins are also clones of each
  other.
• Most of the concerns about cloning relate to the
  possibility that it might be used to clone
  humans. Most Christians feel that the cloning of
  a human, were it to be possible, is unacceptable.

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• Most countries have banned the use of cloning to
  produce human babies (human reproductive
  cloning).
• In therapeutic cloning (or cell nucleus
  replacement), tissues are created. Single cells
  are taken from a person and reprogrammed to
  create stem cells, which have the potential to
  develop into any type of cell in the body in
  order to provide replacement organs or limbs. In
  2001 the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Act
  allowed the use of human embryos in stem cell
  research, using leftover embryos from IVF
  treatment.
• Many Christians feel that research into
  therapeutic cloning is against the will of God as
  it is unnatural. They argue that human life
  should not be tampered with we should not play
  God.

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• Others would say that people have a God-given
  responsibility to care for creation and if
  therapeutic cloning would benefit humans it is a
  good thing as long as it is strictly controlled.
• The Roman Catholic Church teaches that cloning
  separates the procreation of children from the
  sexual act and often involves the creation and
  subsequent destruction of a large number of
  fertilised eggs. This is against Roman Catholic
  teaching on the sanctity of life.
• Key words
• Cloning the making of a replica.
• Reproductive cloning cloning which creates
  offspring.
• Stem cells single cells which have the potential
  to be reprogrammed to develop into any type of
  cell in the body.
• Therapeutic cloning a medical procedure where
  single cells are taken from a person or embryo
  and reprogrammed to create stem cells which can
  be used in medical treatment.

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• Christian attitudes to suicide
• Most Christians believe that it is wrong for a
  person to commit suicide, although they recognise
  that these people may have gone beyond the stage
  where they are able to make rational decisions.
• Suicide is when a person ends his or her own
  life. In the UK less than one in 100 deaths
  every year is the result of suicide.
• In the past, suicide was considered a serious
  crime, and the Christian Church treated it as a
  sin.

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• Christians might argue against suicide by saying
• God chooses when people are born and when they
  die.
• Suffering can bring people close to God.
• Suicide is a form or murder, even if the murderer
  and the victim are the same person and one of
  the Ten Commandments is You shall not murder.
• Paul said that the body was a temple of the Holy
  Spirit and so the body should be treated as a
  place where God lives, and should be respected.
• Suicide is sometimes viewed as a mortal sin
  against the Holy Spirit which prevents the person
  entering heaven. In the past this meant that
  suicides could not be buried in consecrated
  ground.
• Suicide is sometimes regarded as a selfish
  response which ignores those people left behind.

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• The Samaritans is an organisation that was
  started in 1953 by the Reverend Chad Varah who
  was a Church of England vicar. It provides
  confidential emotional support to anyone needing
  it including those who may be contemplating
  suicide. The Samaritans is available to anyone,
  of any religion or none. The volunteers do not
  give advice or tell the caller what to do, but
  listen and help people to work out their own
  answers.
• Key point Most Christians believe that the right
  response to suicide is to be loving and
  forgiving. People who attempt suicide should be
  helped to overcome the reasons which made them
  want to kill themselves. People who do commit
  suicide should be regarded with respect and
  understanding not condemned.

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• 6. Christian attitudes to euthanasia
• The word euthanasia comes from two Greek
  words eu meaning good, and thanatos, meaning
  death. Literally, it means a good death.
• There are different types of euthanasia
• Voluntary euthanasia is when someone asks for the
  end of his or her own life but is unable to
  commit suicide without help. This is often
  called assisted suicide.
• Involuntary euthanasia is when other people
  decide that it would be for the best if someones
  life ends, because he or she is not able to make
  that decision independently, such as someone who
  is in a persistent vegetative state.

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• Active euthanasia is when action is taken to
  bring life to an end e.g. a lethal dose of drugs
  might be given. This is against the law.
• Passive euthanasia is when action is taken to
  stop giving further treatment such as antibiotics
  or invasive, painful surgery, even though death
  will be the result.
• The Roman Catholic Church is totally opposed to
  euthanasia, and teaches that any act which
  deliberately brings about death is the same as
  murder. It teaches that ordinary treatments, such
  as feeding a patient, must always be continued,
  but that extraordinary treatments, such as a
  complicated operation that is unlikely to
  succeed, need not be given. They do this by
  applying the doctrine of double effect.

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• The Anglican Church has a similar view to the RC
  Church. It teaches that although the deliberate
  taking of human life is forbidden, there are
  strong arguments that people should not be kept
  alive at all costs when they are suffering
  intolerable pain. To allow someone to die may be
  the most living thing to do and applies the
  Christian principle of agape.
• The Quakers do not have a untied view on
  euthanasia. For Quakers what is important is
  that they do the most loving thing.

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• Many Christians support the hospice movement.
  Hospices care for the dying. They do everything
  they can to make a patient more comfortable, such
  as keeping severe pain under control (called
  palliative care). They try to give the dying
  patient a peaceful and happy end to life and aim
  to provide an alternative to euthanasia,
  believing that a good death can be achieved
  without killing, if the patient is surrounded by
  care, love and support.
• Quality of life versus sanctity of life? Many
  Christians and non-believers would wish to
  consider the quality of life of the patient.
  Christians in particular would want to compare
  this with teachings about the sanctity of life
  should a patient be forced to live even though
  they are in desperate pain which cannot be
  relieved?

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Do you think this means humans can do whatever
they like to animals? Explain your reasons.

• This is the basis for Christian belief that
  humans are the most important part of creation
  and that God gave them control over all other
  living things.

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• Christians do not think it is acceptable to be
  cruel to animals but some believe that they can
  be used for medical research.
• Treatments for diseases have resulted from animal
  research, e.g. dialysis machines to treat kidney
  failure and the development of drugs to prevent
  rejection in organ transplants. Animal
  experimentation was also central in creating
  vaccines for tuberculosis, a disease which kills
  3m people each year.